From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Nov 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Klayver falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
A masterclass from Klayver
Marked 9.08 — 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.
Match4 Nov 2028
Three points for Rukh, 2‑0 the final word against Kolos in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Vlad Răileanu was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings6 Nov 2028
Vitalii Roman was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.09. 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.
Squad6 Nov 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ignacio Salvatierra, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Nov 2028
Ostap Prytula is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.25 with 5 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad30 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad30 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match28 Oct 2028
Honours even between Rukh and Inhulets
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Oct 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
28 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.
Market23 Oct 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mukhammad Dzhurabaiev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rukh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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 Oct 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
20 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.
Match21 Oct 2028
Three points for Rukh, 1‑0 the final word against Polissia in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings23 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.29, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Oct 2028
Mykhailo Dziun damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Market16 Oct 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Match14 Oct 2028
No end in sight to Rukh's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rukh has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad16 Oct 2028
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Rukh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Denys Pidhurskyi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad16 Oct 2028
Martin Georgiev 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.
Match14 Oct 2028
Rukh come up short against Karpaty
Karpaty left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Ostap Prytula was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Player ratings16 Oct 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mykhailo Dziun
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Oct 2028
Nowhere to hide for Rukh
2‑6 against Shakhtar, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rukh and Shakhtar in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad9 Oct 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Boardroom9 Oct 2028
Inquest at Rukh
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market2 Oct 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Maksym Mudryi: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market2 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Maksym Uhrik
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksym Uhrik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rukh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Oct 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
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.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.98, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yurii Kopyna, and the manager let it.
Player ratings2 Oct 2028
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Sep 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market25 Sep 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rukh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Georgiev 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.
Boardroom25 Sep 2028
Livyi Bereh will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Troy Savage has pre-agreed a move to Rukh, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Match23 Sep 2028
A bad afternoon for Rukh against LNZ
1‑2 to LNZ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings25 Sep 2028
Ninety minutes of Ostap Prytula at his very best
Marked 8.47. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
Squad25 Sep 2028
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market18 Sep 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market18 Sep 2028
Rukh may not be able to give Klayver what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Klayver wants continental football; whether Rukh can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad18 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Sep 2028
It finished 3‑2, and it was Illia Kvasnytsia’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rukh.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
Vasyl Runich was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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.
Match16 Sep 2028
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Illia Kvasnytsia in the middle of it, and Chornomorets unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings18 Sep 2028
A masterclass from Klayver
Marked 8.13 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market11 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Successful dribbles: 24. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market11 Sep 2028
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.
Market11 Sep 2028
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Poltava moved on, Oleksii Hromiak reports back to Rukh, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad11 Sep 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings11 Sep 2028
Marked 8.72 — 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.
Squad11 Sep 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Franco Chacarelli and Rukh agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Sep 2028
Artem Uhrynchuk damages knee ligaments — 14 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 14 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.
Match30 Aug 2028
The cup run ends for Rukh
0‑1 against Kudrivka, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market4 Sep 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market4 Sep 2028
Only the photograph left for Maksym Uhrik
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksym Uhrik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rukh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
Add another name to the list: Chernihiv have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mukhammad Dzhurabaiev. The answer from Rukh has not changed — yet.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Klayver falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
A performance of 9.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Illia Kvasnytsia was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad28 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Aug 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings28 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market28 Aug 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mukhammad Dzhurabaiev will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rukh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match26 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Rukh
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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad28 Aug 2028
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Match26 Aug 2028
A bad afternoon for Rukh against Kryvbas
0‑1 to Kryvbas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market21 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxim Nikiforov is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market21 Aug 2028
The bid was some way short and Rukh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market21 Aug 2028
Rukh may not be able to give Miguel Sánchez what he wants
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Miguel Sánchez wants continental football; whether Rukh can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
Squad21 Aug 2028
“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 Rukh know it.
Match19 Aug 2028
2‑3 to Dynamo Kyiv, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Aug 2028
Ninety minutes of Illia Kvasnytsia at his very best
Marked 8.77. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad14 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
36 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market14 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Tutti keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Real improvement from Tutti at Rukh
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tutti is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market14 Aug 2028
Szabolcs Nagy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rukh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match12 Aug 2028
Rukh come up short against Zorya
Zorya left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Market14 Aug 2028
The name of Mukhammad Dzhurabaiev has come up in conversations Rukh were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Market14 Aug 2028
Chornomorets pay $31.0K, 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
43 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market7 Aug 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Martin Georgiev is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market7 Aug 2028
Only the photograph left for Maksym Uhrik
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Maksym Uhrik will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rukh the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Market7 Aug 2028
Rukh get their man
The chase for Miguel Sánchez ended with $230.0K changing hands and Metalurh Zaporizhzhia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi has improved at 25, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Kvasnytsia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.70, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad31 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.41, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market31 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market31 Jul 2028
Chernihiv come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rukh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad31 Jul 2028
Joaquín Nazar is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad31 Jul 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Denys Pidhurskyi and Rukh agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad31 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Rukh
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match29 Jul 2028
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Denys Pidhurskyi. 2‑0 against Epicentr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Jul 2028
Artem Uhrynchuk damages knee ligaments — 58 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 58 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market24 Jul 2028
Rukh say no — this time
The offer from Obolon for Oleksandr Hoch 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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maxim Nikiforov is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market24 Jul 2028
Klayver wants European nights
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.
Squad24 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom17 Jul 2028
Pressure builds in the Rukh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Artem Uhrynchuk damages knee ligaments — 65 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 65 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Market17 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Bohdan Kyrykovych is a better footballer than he was
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.
Market17 Jul 2028
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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
73 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market10 Jul 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Martin Georgiev is a better footballer than he was
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.
Market10 Jul 2028
Szabolcs Nagy has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rukh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
A late step up for Klayver
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jul 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artem Uhrynchuk
80 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Boardroom3 Jul 2028
Crisis meeting at Rukh
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market3 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market3 Jul 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market3 Jul 2028
The paperwork is done: Matvii Kharchenko joins from UCSA in a deal worth $160.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Squad3 Jul 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klayver 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.
In brief
-
Squad
Emiliano Larrouy stays put
-
Boardroom
Rukh sign 7 boys into the academy
-
Boardroom
$5.0M taken back off the Rukh table
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jun 2028
Artem Uhrynchuk damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Market26 Jun 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market26 Jun 2028
The phone has started ringing about Yurii-Volodymyr Hereta again, and this time the name on the line is Metalist. Rukh are listening politely and promising nothing.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro 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.
In brief
-
Squad
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
-
Squad
Too much change too quickly at Rukh
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Rukh
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market19 Jun 2028
Polissia come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rukh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market19 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Maxim Nikiforov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Maxim Nikiforov has just signed for Rukh, and for once the answer mattered.
Market19 Jun 2028
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rukh have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad19 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market12 Jun 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom12 Jun 2028
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Szabolcs Nagy has agreed terms with Vorskla for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Market12 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Klayver 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.
Squad12 Jun 2028
“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 Rukh know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vitaliy Shaparenko has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
Crisis meeting at Rukh
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Market5 Jun 2028
Vasyl Runich hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market5 Jun 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad5 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad5 Jun 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artur Bybik and Rukh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Jun 2028
The manager's exit leaves Ostap Prytula exposed
Every squad has men who were signed by a particular manager and men who were merely inherited. Ostap Prytula is in the first group, and the man who wanted him here is no longer in the building.
Boardroom5 Jun 2028
$5.0M taken back off the Rukh table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market29 May 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad29 May 2028
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 Rukh have had the benefit of it.
Squad29 May 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Bohdan Levytskyi is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad29 May 2028
Klayver 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.
Market29 May 2028
Maksym Uhrik returns from a loan that gave him nothing
3 appearances and 0 goals is not a season, it is a year somebody has lost. Whether that is his fault, the borrowing club's or the people who arranged it is the argument the next few weeks will have.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom22 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Rukh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market22 May 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market22 May 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad22 May 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Klayver 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.
Loan watch22 May 2028
“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 Rukh, and 1 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 May 2028
Denys Sliusar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 May 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro 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.
Squad15 May 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Kvasnytsia is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom8 May 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 May 2028
Vasyl Runich hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market8 May 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rukh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad8 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 May 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mauro Aguirre and Rukh agree another 2 years.
Squad8 May 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad8 May 2028
A muscle injury sidelines Oleksii Piskun for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Rukh will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Loan watch8 May 2028
“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 Rukh, and 3 appearances in 41 say he has earned the hearing.
Boardroom8 May 2028
$5.0M taken back off the Rukh table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market1 May 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad1 May 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Loan watch1 May 2028
“I watch every Rukh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metalurh Zaporizhzhia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom24 Apr 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Rukh
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market24 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market24 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad24 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Loan watch24 Apr 2028
Tutti counts the days
“I watch every Rukh 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market17 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
“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 Rukh, and 4 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad17 Apr 2028
6 new faces, and Rukh 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Vlad Răileanu is still paying for one afternoon at Rukh
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market10 Apr 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market10 Apr 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad10 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad10 Apr 2028
“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 Rukh know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Apr 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 21 days out
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.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Rukh can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market3 Apr 2028
Dren Terrnava hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Rukh told Illia Kvasnytsia something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Loan watch3 Apr 2028
“I did not go to Metalurh Zaporizhzhia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Rukh and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 36 matches say the rest.
Boardroom3 Apr 2028
Rukh pull $5.0M back off the table
The money that was there in the summer is not there now. Nobody upstairs calls this a change of ambition, and everybody downstairs reads it as one.
Market3 Apr 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rukh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Renan Oliveira
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Rukh
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rukh is running low.
Market27 Mar 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market27 Mar 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rukh is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Boardroom27 Mar 2028
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad27 Mar 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad27 Mar 2028
40 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Loan watch27 Mar 2028
“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 Rukh, and 1 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Renan Oliveira
26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Mar 2028
Maksym Mudryi hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom20 Mar 2028
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Adam Wihed has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad20 Mar 2028
21 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Mar 2028
Renan Oliveira damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Market13 Mar 2028
Denys Sliusar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market13 Mar 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rukh they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Illia Kvasnytsia falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“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 Rukh know it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
Renan Oliveira damages knee ligaments — 41 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 41 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.
Boardroom6 Mar 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Vitaliy Shaparenko has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Mar 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yurii Kopyna and Rukh agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Illia Kvasnytsia 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.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Bohdan Levytskyi is a better footballer than he was
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
Renan Oliveira damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Rukh
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Rukh is running low.
Market28 Feb 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Yurchenko is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad21 Feb 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 67 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 67 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.
Market21 Feb 2028
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Feb 2028
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro 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.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market21 Feb 2028
Add another name to the list: Feniks have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mukhammad Dzhurabaiev. The answer from Rukh has not changed — yet.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Match19 Feb 2028
Rukh come up short against Obolon
Obolon left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch21 Feb 2028
“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 Rukh, and 4 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Feb 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Klayver scores twice — 9.08
Two goals and a mark of 9.08 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market14 Feb 2028
Dren Terrnava hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market14 Feb 2028
Rukh get their man
The chase for Illia Kvasnytsia ended with $1.3M changing hands and Karpaty out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad14 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
It finished 2‑1, and it was Klayver’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rukh.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Ostap Prytula is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.49 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Feb 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 81 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 81 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.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market7 Feb 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
Tutti, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.99
A mark of 7.99 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Alexis Ramel gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Alexis Ramel has just signed for Rukh, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings7 Feb 2028
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match5 Feb 2028
Kryvbas made Rukh work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jan 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 88 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 88 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
Rukh taken apart
1‑6 to Dynamo Kyiv, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market31 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match29 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Rukh
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom31 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Rukh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad31 Jan 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad31 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 Jan 2028
Ostap Prytula among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Ostap Prytula on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rukh and Dynamo Kyiv.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Cristian Nedelcearu has just signed for Rukh, and for once the answer mattered.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jan 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 95 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 95 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.
Market24 Jan 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match22 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Rukh's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rukh has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 27. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Match22 Jan 2028
A bad afternoon for Rukh against Zorya
1‑3 to Zorya, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Marked 8.46 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Jan 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 104 days out
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.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.39 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Match15 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Rukh
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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
“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 Rukh know it.
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch17 Jan 2028
“I did not go to Victoriia Sumy to sit and watch. I want to come back to Rukh and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 19 matches say the rest.
Match15 Jan 2028
Honours even between Rukh and LNZ
2‑2, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 111 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 111 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match8 Jan 2028
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Denys Pidhurskyi will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Rukh escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Mauro Aguirre: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match8 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Rukh
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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Denys Pidhurskyi at his very best
Marked 8.85. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
Player ratings10 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Beknaz Almazbekov at his very best
Marked 8.48. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad3 Jan 2028
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 119 days out
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.
Market3 Jan 2028
Vasyl Runich hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Rukh boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad3 Jan 2028
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 Rukh have had the benefit of it.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Loan watch3 Jan 2028
“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 Rukh, and 4 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Jan 2028
33 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
Ninety minutes of Ostap Prytula at his very best
Marked 8.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
In brief
-
Match
Honours even between Rukh and Kolos
-
Boardroom
Rukh pull $5.0M back off the table
-
Boardroom
Rukh sign a deal worth $341.1K a year
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Duffard
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market27 Dec 2027
Dren Terrnava hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Renan Oliveira: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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 terraces27 Dec 2027
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.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
Vasyl Runich was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings27 Dec 2027
A performance of 8.48 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Duffard
134 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market20 Dec 2027
Denys Sliusar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Dec 2027
“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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match18 Dec 2027
Polissia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Loan watch20 Dec 2027
“I watch every Rukh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Victoriia Sumy runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
9 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Dec 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Duffard
141 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Defensive actions: 31, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
24 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.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 23. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maksym Havura is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.50. 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Dec 2027
Chastening afternoon for Rukh
A 1‑5 beating by Shakhtar was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
7.99, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Tutti says Rukh went back on their word
“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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bohdan Levytskyi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match4 Dec 2027
6 goals as Rukh and Shakhtar go for it
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Rukh and Shakhtar, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad29 Nov 2027
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.
Match27 Nov 2027
Chastening afternoon for Rukh
A 1‑5 beating by Oleksandriya was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Yurchenko is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match27 Nov 2027
Vasyl Runich among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Vasyl Runich on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Rukh and Oleksandriya.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A performance of 8.23 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Doors closed at Rukh
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Nov 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
“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; Rukh are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Marked 8.16 — 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.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Ostap Prytula at his very best
Marked 8.02. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
Loan watch22 Nov 2027
“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 Rukh, and 3 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Tutti says Rukh went back on their word
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
25 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
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.
Match13 Nov 2027
Kudrivka made Rukh work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings15 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Francisco Bareiro at his very best
Marked 8.28. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
35 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
No end in sight to Rukh's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rukh has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad8 Nov 2027
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match6 Nov 2027
Rukh cannot find the net
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Beknaz Almazbekov 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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Defensive actions: 22, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Loan watch8 Nov 2027
“I watch every Rukh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Vorskla runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad1 Nov 2027
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market1 Nov 2027
Dren Terrnava hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Match30 Oct 2027
The wait goes on for Rukh
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match30 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Rukh
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rukh can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad1 Nov 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Yurii-Volodymyr Hereta commits to Rukh for another 4 years.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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 terraces1 Nov 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market25 Oct 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match23 Oct 2027
6 matches without a win for Rukh
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Rukh are no longer polite ones.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Nazar Yurchenko: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings25 Oct 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match23 Oct 2027
4 matches without a goal for Rukh
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Yurii-Volodymyr Hereta knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Match23 Oct 2027
A bad afternoon for Rukh against Kryvbas
0‑2 to Kryvbas, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market18 Oct 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“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.
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Rukh's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Rukh has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii-Volodymyr Hereta was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Match16 Oct 2027
The goals have deserted Rukh
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Rukh can tell you which week it ends in.
Match16 Oct 2027
Dynamo Kyiv left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad18 Oct 2027
“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 Rukh know it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad11 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Dren Terrnava: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match9 Oct 2027
4 matches without a win for Rukh
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rukh are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings11 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market4 Oct 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad4 Oct 2027
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.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad4 Oct 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mauro Aguirre and Rukh agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match2 Oct 2027
LNZ take the points off Rukh
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings4 Oct 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Loan watch4 Oct 2027
“I watch every Rukh game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Metalurh Zaporizhzhia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Market4 Oct 2027
The Vasyl Runich talk will not go away
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rukh know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Sep 2027
Emiliano Larrouy damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Real improvement from Tutti at Rukh
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tutti is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Mauro Aguirre 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.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
One lapse, one goal, and ninety minutes of honest work counting for nothing. That is the job at Rukh, and it is a cruel one.
Market27 Sep 2027
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vitalii Roman signs something — a contract at Rukh or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Sep 2027
Emiliano Larrouy damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Beknaz Almazbekov is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Ostap Prytula at his very best
Marked 8.94. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Ninety minutes of Denys Sliusar at his very best
Marked 8.24. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
Loan watch20 Sep 2027
“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 Rukh, and 0 appearances in 8 say he has earned the hearing.
Match18 Sep 2027
Rukh share the spoils with Kolos
A 2‑2 draw with Kolos leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad13 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market13 Sep 2027
LNZ come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rukh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market13 Sep 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad13 Sep 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 26. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market13 Sep 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Nyva moved on, Yaroslav-Avhustyn Pankivskyi reports back to Rukh, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad13 Sep 2027
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 21 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Sep 2027
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match4 Sep 2027
5 matches without a win for Rukh
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Rukh are no longer polite ones.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Maksym Havura is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match4 Sep 2027
Rukh are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 5 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match4 Sep 2027
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Loan watch6 Sep 2027
“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 Rukh, and 1 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Aug 2027
Rukh out of the cup
Bukovyna ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad30 Aug 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Mukhammad Dzhurabaiev did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.69 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Match28 Aug 2027
4 matches without a win for Rukh
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Rukh are no longer polite ones.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dmytro Sabiiev is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Klayver signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Klayver commits to Rukh for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad23 Aug 2027
Mauro Aguirre damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Market23 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nazar Yurchenko is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Adam Wihed gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adam Wihed has just signed for Rukh, and for once the answer mattered.
Match21 Aug 2027
A bad afternoon for Rukh against Shakhtar
2‑3 to Shakhtar, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.09, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.41 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Market23 Aug 2027
He is 20, and the scouting reports agree on the only line that matters: the ceiling. Signings like this are lottery tickets written by professionals.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Mauro Aguirre
28 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Tutti: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad16 Aug 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Nazar Yurchenko gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nazar Yurchenko has just signed for Rukh, and for once the answer mattered.
Market16 Aug 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market16 Aug 2027
The fee is $67.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. UCSA drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
The terraces16 Aug 2027
Rukh supporters have found a favourite in Klayver
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Klayver has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.74, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
One of those days for Klayver
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.47, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Aug 2027
Mauro Aguirre damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
A defender's afternoon for Vlad Răileanu
Defensive actions: 29. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Market9 Aug 2027
Talles Brener hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market9 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rukh have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denys Pidhurskyi and Rukh agree another 4 years.
Market9 Aug 2027
The deal that would have taken Yaroslav-Avhustyn Pankivskyi to Bukovyna has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Rukh with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Bohdan Levytskyi is a better footballer than he was
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.
Player ratings9 Aug 2027
Ostap Prytula was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.26. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad2 Aug 2027
Mauro Aguirre damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match31 Jul 2027
No mercy from Rukh
Kudrivka will want this one forgotten quickly: 5‑1, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Rukh were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Market2 Aug 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad2 Aug 2027
The match ball belongs to Francisco Bareiro, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match31 Jul 2027
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Rukh and Kudrivka in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Player ratings2 Aug 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.85, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
Graduation day at Rukh
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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
“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 Rukh know it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Mauro Aguirre damages knee ligaments — 54 days out
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.
Market26 Jul 2027
Rukh say no — this time
The offer from Bukovyna for Tutti 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Renan Oliveira, and the manager let it.
Market26 Jul 2027
The Vasyl Runich story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vasyl Runich signs something — a contract at Rukh or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
Mauro Aguirre damages knee ligaments — 63 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
Market19 Jul 2027
Maksym Boiko hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market19 Jul 2027
Nyva come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Rukh did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vasyl Runich commits to Rukh for another 4 years.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
115 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market12 Jul 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rukh can pretend not to have heard.
Market12 Jul 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Rukh have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad12 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Jul 2027
The manager makes an example of Denys Sliusar
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
122 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market5 Jul 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Vitalii Roman 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Mauro Aguirre 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.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Intake day at the Rukh academy
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
129 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad28 Jun 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Real improvement from Klayver at Rukh
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Klayver is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mykola Kyrychok is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad21 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Vlad Răileanu 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. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Market21 Jun 2027
Add another name to the list: Probiy have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tutti. The answer from Rukh has not changed — yet.
Market21 Jun 2027
Rukh have made Renan Oliveira available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Jun 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Emiliano Larrouy
145 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yurii-Volodymyr Hereta is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad14 Jun 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jun 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bohdan Levytskyi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad31 May 2027
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. Rukh will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Squad31 May 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Mauro Aguirre falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad24 May 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad24 May 2027
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 May 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad17 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Yurii-Volodymyr Hereta, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
Matías Duffard: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 May 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 May 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad3 May 2027
Klayver signs on for more
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Klayver and Rukh agree another 4 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad26 Apr 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Francisco Bareiro, and the manager let it.
In brief
-
Squad
6 new faces, and Rukh are still learning each other
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Apr 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad19 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yurii Kopyna is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Apr 2027
Valentyn Morhun: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market5 Apr 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Tai Žnuderl is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad29 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Oleksandr Hoch is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Matías Duffard falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Mar 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Bohdan Levytskyi is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Francisco Bareiro was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Mar 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Ivan Denysov is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Mar 2027
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mauro Aguirre and Rukh agree another 2 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Duffard
31 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Renan Oliveira wants to finish where he started
Every long career reaches the week the player starts thinking about the last one. He would like it to be at the club that first put him on a pitch, and Rukh now know that too.
Market1 Mar 2027
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Rukh no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Market1 Mar 2027
Rukh bring in an old head
Oleksandr Lytvynenko is 35 and has run out of things to prove. What he has left is where to stand, when to slow it down and what to say at half-time, and none of that is on a fitness chart.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Feb 2027
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Polissia left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2027
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 48 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rukh may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Denys Pidhurskyi 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.
Market15 Feb 2027
Yehor Klymenko has left for Epicentr in a $44.0K deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Player ratings15 Feb 2027
Ninety minutes of Klayver at his very best
Marked 8.98. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Rukh.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
“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 Rukh, and 0 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
The terraces15 Feb 2027
The crowd has taken to Klayver
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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Mauro Aguirre 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.
Match13 Feb 2027
Rukh share the spoils with Kryvbas
A 1‑1 draw with Kryvbas leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Matías Duffard
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rukh lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market8 Feb 2027
“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 Rukh, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Feb 2027
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Feb 2027
“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 Rukh know it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Denys Pidhurskyi falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Player ratings8 Feb 2027
A performance of 9.13 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match6 Feb 2027
Rukh get the job done against Karpaty
A 2‑1 win over Karpaty, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 64 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 64 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match30 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Rukh
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tai Žnuderl 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 terraces1 Feb 2027
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.
Player ratings1 Feb 2027
A performance of 8.82 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad1 Feb 2027
The manager makes an example of Tai Žnuderl
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad25 Jan 2027
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 73 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 73 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Rukh
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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Match23 Jan 2027
Rukh come up short against LNZ
LNZ left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Yurii Kopyna gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings25 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2027
Vitalii Roman damages knee ligaments — 20 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A one-man rearguard from Tai Žnuderl
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match16 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Rukh
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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad11 Jan 2027
Vitalii Roman damages knee ligaments — 27 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 27 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Age has not caught Renan Oliveira yet — 8.68
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.68 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tai Žnuderl is a better footballer than he was
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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Denys Pidhurskyi and Rukh agree another 4 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna 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.
Player ratings11 Jan 2027
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Jan 2027
Vitalii Roman damages knee ligaments — 34 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 34 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Klayver was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.85. 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 terraces4 Jan 2027
The crowd has taken to Klayver
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.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mauro Aguirre falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Dec 2026
Vitalii Roman damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Klayver runs at them all day
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Denys Sliusar: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Rukh have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Tempers go at Rukh
Yurii Kopyna was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ivan Denysov is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
97% of the income goes out in wages at Rukh
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Defensive actions: 16, and a clean sheet at the end of it. A centre-half's best afternoons look like nothing happening, which is precisely the point.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
The one thing Igor Neves could not do
Shots: 12, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Dec 2026
Vitalii Roman damages knee ligaments — 52 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 52 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
32 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.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Yurii Kopyna in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
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.
Match19 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Igor Neves. 2‑0 against Poltava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Rukh training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denys Pidhurskyi is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Marked 8.06 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Dec 2026
Matías Duffard damages knee ligaments — 117 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 117 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.
Match12 Dec 2026
The wait goes on for Rukh
12 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
“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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rukh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Nobody could get near Klayver
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match12 Dec 2026
Shakhtar left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.