0‑5 against PSK Pervorechenskoe, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhter Donetsk have done the hard part with Mashuk, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Miłosz Pacek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zenit Penza have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $3.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Shakhter Donetsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Leningradets, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Barnaul have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miłosz Pacek is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Miłosz Pacek
The dugoutFedor Toporov faces a manager he fell out with
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Leningradets is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
3 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Alania have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Miłosz Pacek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Topper Aller 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 fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Nil Maksimov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhter Donetsk have done the hard part with Khimik, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Mashuk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stefan Daehli was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutZsombor Péter knocks on the manager’s door
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Shishkin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jakub Grzegorzewski and Shakhter Donetsk agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than 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 Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Bryansk have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miłosz Pacek 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.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Kvant is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Volga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Khimik said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miłosz Pacek 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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhter Donetsk have done the hard part with Volga, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Taimaz Kodzasov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Daehli 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 stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miłosz Pacek is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Zsombor Péter 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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Taimaz Kodzasov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Danila Molodnyakov signs something — a contract at Shakhter Donetsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Miłosz Pacek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Əşrəf Zeynallı 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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniil Punegov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Dmitry Scherban signs something — a contract at Shakhter Donetsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Tomasz Tomasik 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.
Squad22 May 2028
Miłosz Pacek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miłosz Pacek signs something — a contract at Shakhter Donetsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Kevin Disha’s negotiating for him
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Shakhter Donetsk will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Kosmachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
“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; Shakhter Donetsk are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Danila Molodnyakov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Position 20 and 9 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Position 20 on 9 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.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad1 May 2028
Miłosz Pacek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad10 Apr 2028
Miłosz Pacek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Position 20 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every 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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Miłosz Pacek 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 embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
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.
Something was said to Topper Aller and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Kosmachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
8 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miłosz Pacek 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.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Topper Aller 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.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Stavropol have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Miłosz Pacek falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Fedor Toporov.
Position 20 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
He left as a boy and has come back still knowing where the away end is. Most signings have to be explained to a town; this one needed a photograph and nothing else.
Miłosz Pacek and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom28 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 4 gone
That is the business done at Shakhter Donetsk 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.
Tomasz Tomasik 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.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miłosz Pacek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
0‑3 against Spartak Nalchik, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk 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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Kirov is saying, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is enjoying the guessing.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Aleksey Shishkin left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergei Zyuzin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Artem Gutsa is in the works
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Shishkin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
7.86, 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.
Shakhter Donetsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Volga, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Miłosz Pacek and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhter Donetsk have done the hard part with Salyut, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Topper Aller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Topper Aller did not need any: 7.90, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Topper Aller and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Topper Aller falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
7 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Shishkin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Miłosz Pacek 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 shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Miłosz Pacek 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Topper Aller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Aleksey Shishkin left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Kosmachev 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.
At 18 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Shishkin after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Sergei Zyuzin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Shishkin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
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.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Topper Aller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Shishkin to a room that had heard them before.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Topper Aller, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.58
A mark of 8.58 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The words a physio says slowly. 22 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Position 20 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Topper Aller is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The manager has a list and the board has a condition attached to it. That is not a crisis — half of football works this way — but it decides which of the two of them gets his way in August.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhter Donetsk, another week without a signature from Kevin Disha.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniil Punegov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 29 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
36 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Shakhter Donetsk lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
0‑3 against Rubin Yalta, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
5 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
51 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, 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.” Shakhter Donetsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Topper Aller falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Neri Taliandro is on it.
50 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Topper Aller 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.
“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.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Shishkin to a room that had heard them before.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhter Donetsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
Player ratingsMiłosz Pacek beats them one at a time
SquadWords at Shakhter Donetsk training over how hard people work
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vyacheslav Aristov 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.
Something was said to Kevin Disha and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhter Donetsk, another week without a signature from Kevin Disha.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Taimaz Kodzasov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhter Donetsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
49 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Topper Aller was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jakub Grzegorzewski, and the manager let it.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Aleksey Shishkin left the room before anybody could ask which.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
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 Shakhter Donetsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadWords at Shakhter Donetsk training over how hard people work
47 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Yefim Abdulov 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrey Maksimov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Vladislav Avdeev has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 10 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at Shakhter Donetsk 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.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Dinamo Moscow said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ivan Zybchenko has his answer from Shakhter Donetsk; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Nobody has barred the club from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every incoming name comes with an outgoing one attached.
He used to be one of the options. He is now one of the men the options are picked around, and the change happened quietly enough that only the dressing room noticed on the day.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Zybchenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1‑4 against Dinamo Makhachkala 2, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Tambov have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Shishkin to a room that had heard them before.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sergei Zyuzin 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Spartak Kostroma go through and Shakhter Donetsk go home, 1‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
The deal with KAMAZ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
42 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
8 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Vladivostok keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
41 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
0‑5 to Kyzyltash, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Miłosz Pacek 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Dinamo Kirov is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Amkar have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhter Donetsk, another week without a signature from Semyon Zaets.
39 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Vladivostok have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Shakhter Donetsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at SKA Khabarovsk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
4 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Shakhter Donetsk offered $78.0K; Kaluga 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. Sokol have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Shakhter Donetsk have done the hard part with Tyumen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Kaluga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
Squad12 Jul 2027
Sergei Zyuzin falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The offer went to Volga 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 offer went to Irkutsk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sergei Zyuzin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Taimaz Kodzasov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhter Donetsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The deal with Khimik is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
$18.0K on the table at Luki-Energiya. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Shakhter Donetsk offered $37.0K; Volga 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.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Volga said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vladimir Kosmachev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Daniil Punegov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: SKA Khabarovsk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Shakhter Donetsk have gone to Irkutsk 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.
Miłosz Pacek 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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhter Donetsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Miłosz Pacek 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 a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Shakhter Donetsk will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shakhter Donetsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Shishkin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Kevin Disha is 19, and Shakhter Donetsk have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Daniil Punegov was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Semyon Leskov 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 30 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Shakhter Donetsk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Shadura 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 Taimaz Kodzasov signs something — a contract at Shakhter Donetsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 37 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Anton Shadura 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Shakhter Donetsk know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Shakhter Donetsk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Shadura 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Shakhter Donetsk, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Shakhter Donetsk will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Anatoly Devyatkin 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Gleb Nikitin has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Semyon Leskov is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have 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 Shakhter Donetsk will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
37 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhter Donetsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aleksey Shishkin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
36 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Miłosz Pacek and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Shadura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Shishkin to a room that had heard them before.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
Miłosz Pacek 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.27 on the card, and the Shakhter Donetsk support went home talking about one name.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
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.” Aleksey Shishkin chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vyacheslav Aristov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
34 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Shakhter Donetsk have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Yefim Cherkasov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Level with 92 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Shakhter Donetsk had all but put away. Chaika M will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Shakhter Donetsk pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aleksey Shishkin after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 18 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Semyon Zaets will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Shakhter Donetsk the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Shadura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Shishkin after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Anton Shadura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakub Grzegorzewski trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
What was a back-page link has become a chant, and the chant is not friendly. Shakhter Donetsk would rather it were settled quietly, and it has stopped being quiet.
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 Shakhter Donetsk would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
32 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
17 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Miłosz Pacek 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
31 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
16 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
0‑3 against Sevastopol, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“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.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Shishkin after 0‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
In brief
MarketIlya Zuev returns from a loan that gave him nothing
30 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 15 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Shakhter Donetsk they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Bryansk keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Timur Lunev 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.
29 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 14 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Miłosz Pacek 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 easiest signature of my career.” Hilal Maqsudlu and Shakhter Donetsk agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Anton Shadura will call it something else in private.
28 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 13 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Position 19 and 6 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: CSKA Moscow keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
12 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Kaluga keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Shakhter Donetsk asked and Dinamo Vologda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I watch every Shakhter Donetsk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PSK Pervorechenskoe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
This is not rotation. Zakhar Zorin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
16 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
11 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Shakhter Donetsk can pretend not to have heard.
Shakhter Donetsk had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Bryansk, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
The deal with KAMAZ is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
10 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
The deal with Ufa is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
24 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Position 19 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Miłosz Pacek 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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Gordey Nefedov
0‑4 against Kuban Holding, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
8 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and 1 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Shishkin after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
22 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
This is not rotation. Zakhar Zorin has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Shakhter Donetsk is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
21 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Aleksey Shishkin has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Shadura is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
20 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
19 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Shakhter Donetsk can tell you which week it ends in.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Shadura is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Shakhter Donetsk, and 1 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Aleksey Shishkin after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Dinamo Stavropol? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
18 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dmitri Alekseev is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhter Donetsk, another week without a signature from Semyon Zaets.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Semyon Leskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Angusht? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
17 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Shakhter Donetsk can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Miłosz Pacek 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.
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Danila Molodnyakov's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
“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 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.
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Shakhter Donetsk is running low.
Miłosz Pacek and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
0‑2 to Astrakhan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
15 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 13 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Neri Taliandro did not need any: 7.73, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
7 goals in one match, Neri Taliandro on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Shakhter Donetsk and Chaika M.
“I watch every Shakhter Donetsk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PSK Pervorechenskoe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Gordey Nefedov's mistake
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vyacheslav Aristov 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 Jakub Grzegorzewski signs something — a contract at Shakhter Donetsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
The dugoutSergei Zyuzin asks for a word with the manager
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Neri Taliandro, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.26
A mark of 8.26 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Shakhter Donetsk and Sochi 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Neri Taliandro 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Valentin Obukhov has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergei Zyuzin has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Shadura is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 13 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Position 19 and 1 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Anton Shadura 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.
12 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
12 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
14 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.
“I watch every Shakhter Donetsk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PSK Pervorechenskoe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Aleksey Shishkin to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Danila Molodnyakov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 11 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ivan Zybchenko is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Shakhter Donetsk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Shadura was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Aleksey Shishkin left the room before anybody could ask which.
Miłosz Pacek was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Denis Rumyantsev 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. Innokentiy Barinov 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 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 Semyon Leskov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 10 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Miłosz Pacek and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
9 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
14 new faces, and Shakhter Donetsk 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.
“I watch every Shakhter Donetsk game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at PSK Pervorechenskoe runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Spartak Nalchik? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
8 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Shadura 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Aleksey Shishkin after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Grzegorzewski signs something — a contract at Shakhter Donetsk or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
0‑7 to Rostov 2, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Shakhter Donetsk has to find a result from somewhere.
7 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Shakhter Donetsk close the window on a squad of their own making
28 in and 17 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Shakhter Donetsk and Rostov 2, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Anton Shadura was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Zakhar Chaykovsky 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.
“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 Shakhter Donetsk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Dinamo Vladivostok, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rodina have kept their man, and Shakhter Donetsk go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Anton Shadura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Shakhter Donetsk, another week without a signature from Semyon Zaets.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Semyon Zaets trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Rostov 2.
Still no offer on the table, and Ivan Zybchenko’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.