Liverpool did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $32.0M for Yehor Yarmoliuk, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Veres waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Yehor Yarmoliuk is living that version at Shakhtar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Adrien Rabiot was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The terraces26 Jun 2028
Shakhtar spend $32.0M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $32.0M for Yehor Yarmoliuk, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
In brief
SquadVinicius Tobias falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutVinicius Tobias has become a man the manager trusts
Shakhtar have gone to Liverpool with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Anton Hlushchenko had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Prykarpattia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer from Oleksandriya for Oleh Ocheretko 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.
The offer went to Oleksandriya this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.3M — a club that wants Oleksandr Pikhalionok enough to be asked twice.
Add another name to the list: Vorskla have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Valeriy Bondar. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
71 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The offer from IMT for Lindon Emërllahu 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Giorgi Gocholeishvili was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
20 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Adrien Rabiot is on it.
12 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Adrien Rabiot and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
1 kept out from twelve yards, and a stadium that will describe each of them for twenty years. A goalkeeper needs one night like this in a career, and this was it.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Shakhtar had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
18 clean sheets across a season, and the one award on the pitch nobody else is eligible for. Most keepers get through a whole career without a year like it.
29 games, 0 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Shakhtar now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
6 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Wisla Krakow. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
7 graduates, from a department now rated 11 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Rossi wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Shakhtar, and 5 appearances in 47 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Eguinaldo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Shakhtar has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danylo Udod will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Shakhtar has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Shakhtar will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Adrien Rabiot 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.
11 goals in 30 games at Teplice — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
10 goals in 31 games at Arka Gdynia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Shakhtar told Artem Bondarenko something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedro Henrique is on it.
6 goals in 28 games at Radnicki Nis — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
6 shut-outs in 21 games. A goalkeeper’s loan is judged on the afternoons when nothing happened at all, and Tymur Puzankov has been having a lot of them.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
71 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“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 Shakhtar, and 0 appearances in 43 say he has earned the hearing.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Shakhtar. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Agustín Rossi is on it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Shakhtar that is a harder question to answer.
5 goals in 29 games at Poltava — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
10 goals in 30 games at Arka Gdynia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
6 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oleh Ocheretko is on it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Kyrylo Fesiun is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
8 goals in 29 games at Arka Gdynia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Shakhtar has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oleh Ocheretko signs something — a contract at Shakhtar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
6 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Wisla Krakow. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Denys Tvardovskyi may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
1 for Adrien Rabiot, marked 7.85, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
7.24, 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.
Muhamadou Kanteh was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Shakhtar and Kolos in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
18 seasons and 285 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Shakhtar heard it as anything else.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Shakhtar will be judged on one thing only.
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.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
The manager has not finished forgetting Pedro Henrique's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Squad6 new faces, and Shakhtar are still learning each other
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Eguinaldo provided it, and the 8.99 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Shakhtar until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
The offer from KuPS for Cauan Baptistella was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Eguinaldo 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.
AC Milan did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $33.1M for Adrien Rabiot, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Adrien Rabiot has just signed for Shakhtar, and for once the answer mattered.
Adrien Rabiot was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $33.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
The phone has started ringing about Danylo Udod again, and this time the name on the line is Metalurh Zaporizhzhia. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Marked 8.05 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The offer went to AC Milan this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
$28.3M was the most the club would pay and Sheffield United were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Oleksandriya had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
7.94, 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.
The offer went to Sheffield United this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Shakhtar asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ermir Rashica has just signed for Shakhtar, and for once the answer mattered.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
$2.6M settles it between the clubs for Ermir Rashica
Metalist have accepted the money. What Shakhtar do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. River Plate have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
7.84, 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.
58 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Two goals and a mark of 8.33 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dmytro Kryskiv scored, was marked 7.77, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.31 with 6 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Taras Burda kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danylo Udod will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Mykola Matviienko 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.
Zorya held the lead for 4 minutes, which is not long enough to enjoy it. Shakhtar answered before the celebration had properly finished, and the shape of the afternoon changed with it.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Zorya; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Irakli Azarovi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Successful dribbles: 28. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Position 1 with 55 on the board, and the queues outside the ticket office are the part of a promotion push that never shows up in a table. The town has decided this one is real.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Rossi wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
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 Shakhtar have had the benefit of it.
7.89, 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.
The phone has started ringing about Irakli Azarovi again, and this time the name on the line is TSC. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 Shakhtar, and 6 appearances in 24 say he has earned the hearing.
Irakli Azarovi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Marked 8.44 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danylo Udod will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Metalist; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 0‑0, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Eduard Kozik’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Shakhtar needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Every debut is a small story about the future: Stanislav Kulach, 15 years old, off the academy pitches and into the first team. The parents in the stand will keep the programme.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Eguinaldo was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Taras Burda could afford to be generous.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.98 for the rest of it.
Mykola Matviienko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Taras Burda kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dmytro Kryskiv is on it.
Derby days make names, and Pedro Henrique made his against Dynamo Kyiv. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Beat anybody else and it is three points. Beat them, with his name on it, and it is a year of bragging rights for Shakhtar and a story that will outlast his contract.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Mykola Matviienko 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.
Position 1, 39 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
6 goals and a season average of 7.26. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Taras Burda, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
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.
7.91, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danylo Udod will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Pedro Henrique in the middle of it, and Metalist unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Oleh Ilin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Shakhtar will be judged on one thing only.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedro Henrique is on it.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Shakhtar would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Metalist next, and one man in the Shakhtar dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
6 goals in 13 games at Arka Gdynia — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The first defeat in 13 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against LNZ; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Rossi wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Anton Hlushchenko has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I watch every Shakhtar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Wisla Krakow runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Shakhtar told Alan Matturro something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
11 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
7 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Eguinaldo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.30 — 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Taras Burda, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
There were 86 minutes on the clock and Polissia had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Shakhtar did not stop to explain themselves.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedro Henrique is on it.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Taras Burda, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Obolon in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Polissia next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Mykola Matviienko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Eguinaldo has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ivan Petriak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Shakhtar needing him to play as if none of it matters.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Shakhtar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The sale went through, the money came with it, and everything anybody had planned for next season is now provisional. New owners always arrive promising patience.
9 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Irakli Azarovi was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vladyslav Chympoiesh and Shakhtar agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Two goals and a mark of 8.95 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Danylo Udod will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Karpaty spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
7.96, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Taras Burda, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Alan Matturro's mistake
Two goals and a mark of 8.59 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The offer from Lokomotiva Zagreb for Anton Hlushchenko 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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 18 signed and 34 gone
That is the business done at Shakhtar until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
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.
Shakhtar asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Pedro Henrique 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.
261 appearances across 18 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Piast had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“I watch every Shakhtar game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jagiellonia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Two goals and a mark of 8.97 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kyrylo Siheiev provided it, and the 8.18 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yehor Nazaryna scored, was marked 7.66, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artem Bondarenko. 1‑0 against Kolos, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhtar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Yehor Nazaryna had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The bid was some way short and Shakhtar did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Oleh Ocheretko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.38. 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.
Irakli Azarovi and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedro Henrique is on it.
94 minutes played. Artem Bondarenko found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Veres went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhtar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Piast had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The offer from Wisła Płock for Yehor Nazaryna 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.
1 for Artem Bondarenko, marked 7.87, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Artem Bondarenko. 3‑2 against Veres, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhtar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” GKS Katowice had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The chase for Dejan Popara ended with $2.2M changing hands and Zorya out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Dejan Popara is living that version at Shakhtar, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom2 Aug 2027
7 academy players handed senior numbers at Shakhtar
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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 42 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Anton Hlushchenko had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The clubs have shaken hands with Zorya; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Probiy waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.6M — a club that wants Dejan Popara enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
16 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The offer from Slaven Belupo for Anton Hlushchenko 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.
The phone has started ringing about Mykola Matviienko again, and this time the name on the line is GKS Katowice. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
Mykola Matviienko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Shakhtar have no good answer.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhtar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Karviná had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhtar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” NK Varazdin had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Nothing signed, nothing denied, and a lot of people suddenly very careful about their wording. Supporters who have been through one of these know the quiet part lasts months.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Shakhtar asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Epicentr waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhtar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Lechia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The chase for Carlos Paraco ended with $4.2M changing hands and Metalist out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Shakhtar asked and Metalist said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Carlos Paraco has, at Shakhtar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Poltava waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhtar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Shakhtar and Metalist have settled on $4.2M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
The offer from Porto for Pedro Henrique 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.
$3.1M on the table at Metalist. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $3.6M — a club that wants Rafael Profini enough to be asked twice.
Corinthians paid $75.2M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Shakhtar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Alisson has gone, the accounts have $75.2M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
Add another name to the list: Porto have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Pedro Henrique. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
Vinicius Tobias and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shakhtar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Shakhtar have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shakhtar lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
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. Shakhtar will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Something was said to Agustín Rossi and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Pedrinho is on it.
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shakhtar lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Agustín Rossi: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 14 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
A 2‑2 win over Zorya, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Player ratings24 May 2027
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.35
A mark of 8.35 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A season average of 7.38 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhtar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Mykola Matviienko 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.
11 goals in 29 games at Zorya — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
11 goals in 16 games at Monagas — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Shakhtar, and 6 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Mykola Matviienko is on it.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Oleh Ilin has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhtar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
13 goals in 26 games at Nyva — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Muhamadou Kanteh 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.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhtar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Oleh Ilin has written the date down.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhtar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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 Shakhtar know it.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Shakhtar told Pedro Henrique something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Muhamadou Kanteh and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Alisson is on it.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Gleiker Mendoza’s exile
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.38, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Mykola Matviienko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
14 goals in 26 games at Al-Ahli — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Shakhtar, and 11 appearances in 37 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhtar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 goals in 15 games at HNK Gorica — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhtar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Shakhtar, and 1 appearances in 18 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhtar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Oleksandr Karavaiev and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhtar know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Shakhtar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Alisson is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Shakhtar will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Something was said to Pedro Henrique and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Shakhtar, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lassina Traoré is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Gleiker Mendoza’s exile
He is 21, he is averaging 7.38, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Mykola Matviienko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Yehor Kostiuk is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Agustín Rossi is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alisson signs something — a contract at Shakhtar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
First, on 80 points. The table is a fact and a fact is allowed to be enjoyed, which is as far as anybody at the club is prepared to go in public.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.80
A mark of 7.80 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.99 for the rest of it.
Mykola Matviienko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Cauan Baptistella is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
29 appearances at Zorya and the goals keep coming. Shakhtar are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Squad22 Mar 2027
10 new faces, and Shakhtar 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.
Derby days make names, and Lassina Traoré made his against Dynamo Kyiv. 2‑0, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
Position 1 on 80 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
0‑2 against Zenit, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
There are goals, and then there are goals against that particular opponent. The Shakhtar support have their bragging rights for a year and they know exactly whose name is on them.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Metalist for Alisson 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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.10, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Agustín Rossi wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shakhtar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shakhtar had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Viktoria Plzen, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Two goals and a mark of 8.46 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
Shakhtar close the window on a squad of their own making
9 in and 5 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A season average of 7.37 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Shakhtar know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shakhtar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
0‑3. Zenit play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
The clubs have shaken hands with Viktoria Plzen; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Alisson reports back to Shakhtar with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The chase for Lindon Emërllahu ended with $5.4M changing hands and Polissia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.79 for the rest of it.
$21.8M settles it between the clubs for Yuri Alberto
Corinthians have accepted the money. What Shakhtar do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhtar have done the hard part with Polissia, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Agustín Rossi has just signed for Shakhtar, and for once the answer mattered.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $2.3M has been paid because Agustín Rossi is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
1 for Yehor Nazaryna, marked 7.81, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
In brief
Player ratingsA defender's goal wins it for Shakhtar — 7.97
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alisson had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Shakhtar have gone to Corinthians with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Livyi Bereh waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The offer went to Polissia this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Braga moved on, Eguinaldo reports back to Shakhtar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The chase for Oleksii Hutsuliak ended with $3.2M changing hands and Polissia out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Shakhtar have gone to Flamengo with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The clubs have shaken hands with Polissia; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.89 for the rest of it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Mykola Matviienko and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Shakhtar and Karpaty in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Maritimo had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Porto paid $28.0M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Marlon Gomes has gone, the accounts have $28.0M in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
12 goals in 20 games at Al-Ahli — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The phone has started ringing about Marlon Gomes again, and this time the name on the line is Porto. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Marlon Gomes
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Avaí moved on, Alisson reports back to Shakhtar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Shakhtar had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.86 for the rest of it.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.28, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
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.
5 matches without defeat, and then Rukh. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Pedro Henrique was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Two goals and a mark of 8.96 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Pedrinho reports back to Shakhtar with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
5 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Add another name to the list: Avaí have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Alisson. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
Marlon Gomes was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 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.
The enquiry everybody at Shakhtar was hoping would not arrive has arrived. He has never pretended he did not want to go back, and now there is somewhere to go back to.
At 2 goals adrift this was a formality, and the formality lasted right up until it did not. Shakhtar found something the first half had given no notice of, and Metalist could not hold what they had.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
3‑1 against CSKA 1948, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Pedrinho was at the centre of the description.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.27, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
“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 Shakhtar know it.
Marlon Gomes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Shakhtar and Poltava, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Pedrinho. 4‑2 against Poltava, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 11 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.93 for the rest of it.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marlon Gomes wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“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 Shakhtar know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Eguinaldo 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.
Dynamo Kyiv next, which means a week that starts on Monday. Everything else on this page will be forgotten by Saturday; this fixture will not be forgotten for a year.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Shakhtar will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Shakhtar that is a harder question to answer.
2‑0 against Partizan, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Marlon Gomes and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Marked 8.12. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Shakhtar.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Dmytro Kryskiv was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Matturro 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
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lassina Traoré
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhtar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
31 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The match ball belongs to Marlon Gomes, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.32
A mark of 8.32 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Dmytro Kryskiv scored, was marked 7.74, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
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.
Gabriel Carvalho 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Shakhtar pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“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 Shakhtar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vinicius Tobias is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Marlon Gomes has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oleh Ocheretko. 1‑0 against Polissia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alan Matturro 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.
Vinicius Tobias and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shakhtar can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
8 goals in 9 games at Zorya — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Pedrinho signs something — a contract at Shakhtar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
4 goals in 7 games at Al-Ahli — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
24 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Alisson, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Valeriy Bondar 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.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Marlon wants continental football; whether Shakhtar can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Pedro Henrique at his very best
SquadWords at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Player ratingsOleh Ocheretko was on a different afternoon to everybody else
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
1 for Yehor Nazaryna, marked 7.73, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Shakhtar can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
0‑2 against Feyenoord, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Istanbulspor had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Alan Matturro, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.72
A mark of 7.72 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Up for the corner, and Marlon Gomes delivers — 7.90
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Marlon Gomes scored, was marked 7.90, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Eguinaldo.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
7 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Alan Matturro had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
7.81, 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.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Shakhtar close the window on a squad of their own making
1 in and 19 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Shakhtar asked and Kryvbas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sabadell had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Monopoli for Irakli Azarovi 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.
Shakhtar asked and Polissia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Zorya paid $1.8M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinicius Tobias was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Alisson is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Shakhtar will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Rostyslav Bahlai and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Pedrinho reports back to Shakhtar with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Isaque had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Alisson, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.51
A mark of 8.51 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.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
$2.4M on the table at Karpaty. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.6M — a club that wants Yaroslav Karabin enough to be asked twice.
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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Olympique de Marseille waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” SM Caen had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Karpaty paid $910.0K and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
The terracesShakhtar supporters have found a favourite in Isaque
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Alisson did not need any: 8.00, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7.79, 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.
Vorskla paid $1.4M and Shakhtar took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Dmytro Riznyk was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
17 seasons and 217 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Shakhtar hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Valentyn Halonskyi 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.
“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; Shakhtar are dealing with a man who wants a different country.