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.
15 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Two goals and a mark of 8.41 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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.
“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 fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Kolos moved on, Dmytro Kryskiv reports back to Shakhtar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
7.56, 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.
“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.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.41 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Successful dribbles: 20. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Gleiker Mendoza 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slask waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lassina Traoré provided it, and the 9.02 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.39 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Player ratings6 Aug 2029
A brace, and Adrien Rabiot takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrien Rabiot provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The offer from Vojvodina 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.
Match4 Aug 2029
Another one collected away from home
5 on the bounce on the road for Shakhtar. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adrien Rabiot. 2‑0 against Polissia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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 Obolon for Isaque 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.
13 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 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
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.
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.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alaa Ghram will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Add another name to the list: Obolon have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Isaque. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Wisła Płock waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Valeriy Bondar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
The offer from Ventspils for Dejan Popara 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.
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 clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Shakhtar $293.3K. Gleiker Mendoza left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
“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 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 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.
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.
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.
“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.
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Torpedo Kutaisi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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.
Shakhtar offered $1.3M; Rukh said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Metalist have kept their man, and Shakhtar go back to a list with one name crossed off 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.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Gleiker Mendoza is a Shakhtar player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
“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.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Gleiker Mendoza has, at Shakhtar, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $7.0M — a club that wants Gleiker Mendoza 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.
“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.
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.
Shakhtar have gone to Zorya 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alaa Ghram will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.2M — a club that wants Greg Taylor enough to be asked twice.
Add another name to the list: Obolon have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Artem Bondarenko. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
Artem Bondarenko 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 manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Irakli Azarovi has his answer from Shakhtar; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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 Vojvodina 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.
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 phone has started ringing about Diego Arroyo again, and this time the name on the line is Zaglebie. Shakhtar are listening politely and promising nothing.
“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 training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 7 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
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.
“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.
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.
52 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad4 Jun 2029
11 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Agustín Rossi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: TSC will make the call about Oleksandr Martyniuk this week. Shakhtar have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Lassina Traoré obliged against Dynamo Kyiv. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Shakhtar.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Shakhtar scored in the 117th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $1.4M of what Shakhtar paid for Oleksii Hutsuliak is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
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.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Shakhtar supporters have already started telling it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Alaa Ghram trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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.
76 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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 Yehor Yarmoliuk is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhtar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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.
10 goals in 27 games at Piast — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Shakhtar updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each 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.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isaque signs something — a contract at Shakhtar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Valeriy Bondar 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.
23 appearances at Metalist and the goals keep coming. Shakhtar are watching this more closely than the borrowing club would like.
Loan watch30 Apr 2029
Kyrylo Fesiun’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 16 appearances at Metalist. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Eguinaldo signs something — a contract at Shakhtar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Shakhtar the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
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.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Yehor Yarmoliuk plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
In brief
SquadIsaque is training like a man with a point to make
76 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dejan Popara 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.
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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Ferreira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
A 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 Alaa Ghram has written the date down.
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 was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It 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.
“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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Ferreira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Isaque signs something — a contract at Shakhtar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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.
“84 caps is more than I ever expected, and it is time somebody else had them.” At 34 he is finished with his country and nowhere near finished with Shakhtar.
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.
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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Denys Tvardovskyi is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Shakhtar than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Danylo Matvienko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Vitaliy Sirenko has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Pavlo Nazarenko is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Kyrylo Shevchuk has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
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.
5 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lucas Ferreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 108th minute. Kolos will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Oleksandr Martyniuk 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.
Position 1 on 76 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 7 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
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.
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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.88 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
211 appearances across 16 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.26 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
7.67, 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.
“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.
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 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 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.
He arrived for a fee and leaves for a fraction of it. $307.7K of what Shakhtar paid for Cauan Baptistella is money the club will not see again, and the boardroom will be asked about it for two seasons.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Metalist moved on, Isaque reports back to Shakhtar, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Boardroom26 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 0 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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Yevhenii Harmash 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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kolos 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.
“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.
“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.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Oleksii Hutsuliak reports back to Shakhtar with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
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.
In brief
SquadDefences have started doubling up on Adrien Rabiot
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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chornomorets had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.36 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
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.
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 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.35 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
“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.
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.
A season average of 7.18 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.
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.
$8.1M was the most the club would pay and Metalist were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Oleksandr Martyniuk had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
57 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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cukaricki had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Zalgiris for Jewison Bennette 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutYehor Yarmoliuk is still being punished for one mistake
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Shakhtar scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
“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 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Oleksandr Yushchenko 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.
Add another name to the list: Cukaricki have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Valeriy Bondar. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
Oleksandriya will want this one forgotten quickly: 6‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Shakhtar were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Two goals and a mark of 8.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.39 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Mykola Oharkov has agreed terms with Karpaty for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
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.
“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.
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.
Yehor Yarmoliuk 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Oleksandr Martyniuk 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Oleksii Hutsuliak will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
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.
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 finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout18 Dec 2028
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Taras Burda chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Latsabidze will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Add another name to the list: Millonarios have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Carlos Paraco. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
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 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.
In brief
Player ratingsThe pass was always on for Adrien Rabiot
1‑0 against Ajax, 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.49 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
Luca Meirelles, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.65
A mark of 7.65 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 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alaa Ghram will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 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 7 appearances in 22 say he has earned the hearing.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
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.
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.
3 goals and a season average of 7.28. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Taras Burda was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Shakhtar dressing room was either.
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.
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.
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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Ferreira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
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.
2‑5. SC Freiburg 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Shakhtar and SC Freiburg in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lassina Traoré. 1‑0 against Metalist, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yehor Yarmoliuk provided it, and the 8.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Mykola Oharkov provided it, and the 8.17 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.99 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
0‑3 against SC Freiburg. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mykola Oharkov 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.
11 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Squad23 Oct 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Ferreira 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.
One booking too many, and Adrien Rabiot sits out. Shakhtar lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Taras Burda was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Shakhtar dressing room was either.
3 goals and a season average of 7.21. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
The dugout23 Oct 2028
Carlos Paraco is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Kolos defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
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.
Valeriy Bondar 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.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Alaa Ghram’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.
2‑0. Continental football is where a club finds out what it actually is, and Shakhtar came through the finding-out well against Goztepe.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
Isaque, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.91
A mark of 7.91 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.
“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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alaa Ghram will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Isaque has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The training ground goes quiet for a fortnight. 6 men have gone off to be somebody else’s players, and the manager is left with the ones nobody has called.
“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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhtar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Kryvbas spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
Marked 8.32 — 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 young player of the month award goes to a 21-year-old at Shakhtar who has looked like the finished article for four weekends running. The next four are the ones that decide whether he is.
0‑3. Ajax 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.27, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
8 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Carlos Paraco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhtar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He is 21, he is averaging 7.00, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Luca Meirelles 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.
Match16 Sep 2028
Another one collected away from home
3 on the bounce on the road for Shakhtar. The coaches leave early, arrive at unlovely grounds in the dark, and keep coming home with three points.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Yehor Yarmoliuk at his very best
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.
Boardroom11 Sep 2028
Shakhtar close the window on a squad of their own making
10 in and 35 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.
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.
Add another name to the list: Ahrobiznes have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mykola Oharkov. The answer from Shakhtar has not changed — yet.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The unglamorous genius of a well-written contract. Viktor Korniienko is somebody else's player now, and $293.3K has arrived because the people who sold him thought further ahead than the transfer window.
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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Carlos Paraco's mistake
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.
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.
“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.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaque did not need any: 8.13, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The offer from České Budějovice for Prosper Obah 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
“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.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Chornomorets 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.
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.
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.
Artem Bondarenko 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 players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 3‑0, Taras Burda could afford to be generous.
“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 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 hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Isaque did not need any: 8.01, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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.
The offer from Metalist for Marlon 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.
Vinicius Tobias 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 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.55 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Luca Meirelles did not need any: 7.85, 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.
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Borys Krushynskyi had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings7 Aug 2028
Isaque, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.15
A mark of 8.15 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.
“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.
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.
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 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.
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.48 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
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.
Boardroom31 Jul 2028
5 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.
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 know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Dukla Prague had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhtar can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhtar they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Oleksandr Bashmarin 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.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhtar, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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.” Spartak Subotica had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
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.
The offer from Piast for Mykola Matviienko 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinicius Tobias 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.
19 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.
Oleksandr Martyniuk and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
A clause somebody insisted on years ago, in a negotiation nobody remembers, has just paid Shakhtar $293.3K. Gleiker Mendoza left a long time ago; the paperwork stayed.
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.
80 caps, a month of football, and a medal that will never leave a drawer. He is due back at Shakhtar in a fortnight and nobody will mention it, which is its own way of mentioning it.
“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.
“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 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.
Yehor Yarmoliuk 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Oleksandr Martyniuk is living that version at Shakhtar, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
SquadWords at Shakhtar training over how hard people work
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Alan Matturro
“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 Epicentr waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Shakhtar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Shakhtar know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
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.