KibworthBull

August 2027 I wanted a couple of rounds before I tried my luck against some serious European talent.. Not first time. For the first hour it was glorious, goals from Danylo Honcharuk and Kristijan Cvetanovski gave us a 2-0 lead, we were laughing, enjoying it, and then the sucker punch and sucker punch again. A draw, at home, it feels like a defeat. A new record attendance. In Spain we weren't really in the game, we got a late goal back up it was always beyond us. We do however get £500k out of our "run" We kicked off the league campaign at Veres and new boy Honcharuk had a good day. I never think it's fair when we play Kyiv. One day we will win - today is not that day. One less Cameroonian at the club. Fodjo goes to Coton Sports - he never quite made the grade and we need the cash.

Pre Season 2027. The love affair between me and Cameroonians is over. Okay we still have some, BUT my new love is Angola. Cláudio Cipriano and Ricardino Simões have been on the radar for a while, both from the same club, and both were released back in March 2027, as soon as we qualified for Europe they were happy to talk. Both are experienced internationals. Also joining are: Matviy Ponomarenko - 21yr old from Dynamo Kyiv, a Striker, a back up option with potential Danylo Honcharuk - 25yr old from Shahktar, another Striker, probably our best option up top Eduard Kozik - 24yr old from Dnipro1, mainly a Central Defender, but he can figure at Right Back if required. We actually paid a fee for him - £21k Confirmation of the outs: The biggest news of the summer was that Shakhtar's legendary manager Fatih Terim has retired, meaning they might be catchable this season - that is the hope. I applied for the job and didn't even get an interview - Dan Petrescu was the succesful candidate. The new stadium, whilst in the long run will be good for us, has knackered us short term - normally the sponsorship money gives us a little bit of a buffer before we fall into debt in the 2nd half of the season. We start the season with £34k in the bank. We need a good European Conference League Campaign.. We have Seville in the 3rd Round.. The one side that seemingly take the minor European Competitions seriously.

Stop Press... Big end of Season news..

May and June 2027 We start tonight chasing the megabucks of the European Competitions. 9 points clear with 4 games to play. Oleksandriia first and foremost in our minds. A big 3-0 win and we sit back and await the rest of the games to see if it's enough? In a word... Yes Top 5 is secured with 3 to play. Europa Conference League as a minimum. Another big win, this time against Kryvbas take us to the brink of securing 4th. Vorskla stumble and we have 4th in the bag. We finished May with a another convincing win, this time over Lviv. Daniel Golani has been in sublime form this month, 5 assists and a goal. Zoria away in the final game. Nothing for us, but Zoria can still snatch 2nd. They don't though as we get another win and another clean sheet. I've never met a Larry, but I bet they are as happy as I am right now.

April 2027 This month is quite sizable. 5 games and they are all winnable. We held the lead against Veres but they snuck back to gain a point. Definately 2 dropped. The Rukh game will be the first game on MoTD. 2-1 down, 3-2 down, 4-3 up. Ngah and Javier both with doubles. Kyiv also do us a favour by beating 6th place Kolos. We thanked Kyiv and we needed it as we travelled to Kolos and they turned us over. 16 year old Vladyslav Moroz (Y) made his debut, that was the only positive. The rest of the month needs to be a must not lose. Chernihiv was mission accomplished. Results went our way too. Bebey has settled in lovely. 4 in 6 including the winner at Metalist. 9 points clear of the chasing pack with 4 to play. We can almost renew our passports. Youth Intake happened and 3 scholars were signed on. None are ready right now, but in a couple of years might be.

March 2027 Football is back. We sit 3rd after the break and stand a realistic chance of European Football next season. So similar to last season and we kind of bottled it then. Karpaty and Georges Mbah up first. He's yet to score for his new team and in this one, he didn't and no one else did either. It's 11 unbeaten and Loïc Bebey scores to help make it 12 against LNZ. What's the best way to test an unbeaten run? Home games against Dynamo Kyiv and Shakhtar.. Kyiv absolutely schooled us... we took the lead but then BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG - all over by half time. A record attendance and record gate reciepts. All of our Cameroonians have been called up for international duty so miss the toughest game of the year. As always an early goal is our downfall. Another record attendance though. Lots of teams bearing down on us though.

Winter Break 2027 It's often a long winter.. This one has had a couple of additions, lots of immediate outs and one heartbreaking depature pencilled in for the end of the season. We'll start with the positive news stories. The new boys. Dmytro Vykhrystiuk was a free agent. And had been for 8 years - which is a bit odd.. Our best option in that role. At one point Loïc Bebey was rated within the best 50 wonderkids by those Next Gen people - he hasn't really kicked on since I left him in the Cameroon but he was available for £38k and didn't want an extreme amount. It also gives me a another point to my total before I can move on. So two in. And plenty of outs Artur Murza was a semi regular on the left winger but the rest were either kids who need to get some football to kick on (Rudyi and Kravchuk) or kids who are country miles away from being professional footballers. It's the best part of £1k off the weekly wage bill. But then on the last day of the transfer window... The moment they sniffed around, we stood no chance.

November 2026 The last month of football until March. But it's a busy one. Picture the scene, 88th minute, 3-1 up against Kryvbas, the away fans start to head to the exit as the traffic can be bad around here.. they get to their cars and turn on the radio and find out they've drawn.. We are our own worst enemy as the cliche goes.. No such shooting ourselves in the foot at Veres, 2 early and 2 late goals secure the points. Francisco Javier FINALLY bags a goal. 13 matches since the last one. I don't know if there is a perfect time to tear a hamstring, but Taras Halas managed to do it in the way at Lviv, he's out for 3 months but will only miss 5 games. 7 players on international duty for the home game against Zoria - 2nd v 3rd. Why we can't postpone it I don't know when we could when we had 4 call ups. We scrape a 2-2 draw in the 96th minute, Francisco Javier with a double We then a game postponed due to the rain before a tough looking clash against Dnipro-1, one down after 3 minutes, we battled back to win very easily. The winter break firmly in focus as we host Vorskla. And victory ensures we can enjoy the winter. Fantastic position at this stage. If we keep this up then Europe is ON! I've signed on for 2 more years. I firmly believe we will still be trying to get onto Shakhtar's tail at that point.

October 2026 Back to Back league defeats and then a trip to Shakhtar... We kept them out for 4 minutes... After a break for internationals, next up were against two sides at the wrong end of the table. LNZ Cherkasy were rock bottom with 1 point to their name, and then Chernihiv were both put to the sword by Marjan Ristevski with a double in both. 3 Ls become 3 Ws on the spin with victory over Metalisk. More back to back action at the end of the month with 2 games against Oleksandriia. Firstly the league and it was a 2nd half showing to secure the W - woeful to wonderful. Then the cup, potentially this is 25 points if we can win it, but with Shakhtar around the chances are slim. The chances are even slimmer as we simply didn't turn up. A bookend-ed month.

September 2026 The reason for keeping Moussa Ngah becomes clearer as he gets both goals in the win at Dnipro-1. More Ngah magic as we beat Vorskla - an even better result with 4 of our key players away on International duty. Karpaty came to town - them who have Mbah amongst their ranks. They sat bottom before the game. And remained so after the game.. Ngah (and yes it's all about him) then gets an injury which puts him out of the rest of the month. The unbeaten run is ended by Denys Barchenko scoring an own goal against Rukh. A bit of rotation in the cup against Mauripol allowed Marjan Ristevski a chance to start for the first time and 21 minutes later he had a hattrick. Dynamo away to end the month - not fair... Early form suggests we are very similar to last year. Which I'll take Just before the transfer window closed we splashed some serious cash (for us) - £350k on Cherif Gnahe, a Centre Back from ASEC Mimosas - £100k now, the rest over 6 easy payments. He improves the defence massively. He was a rumour on the Transfer Deadline Day page - never scouted him. Never needed to. The Heading needs work but everything else is fantastic for us.

August 2026 Just the one game this month. After some very good pre-season friendly results - in 1 we played the strongest possible side, against a side leagues below us. I think you can guess which one.. But onto the league. Kolos put 11 men behind the ball and we failed to break it down. A clean sheet and we are off and running.

2026/27 Transfer Window It's been a big summer. We welcome new friends and welcome back some others. Denys Barchenko has turned his loan deal into a perm deal and becomes the first choice keeper, Serhii Kiblytskyi comes in as deputy - he was one of the two players released by the big 2 over the summer. Taras Halas was here on loan and comes in as a perm again, and Daniel Golani is a right winger we secured in January. On paper he looks as good as the Cameroonian Two. Up front Marjan Ristevski is one of two Macedonians that have joined the party, Kristijan Cvetanovski, a right back, is the other. Cventanovski is extremely good and we are lucky to have him. Yevhen Isaenko can play in any of the forward roles - a bit of a journeyman, he's played a bit at this level without setting things alight. Vladyslav Pryimak is an experienced DM, and cover CD who adds to the squad - I expect both of these to be squad players. Blendi Belančić is an 18 year old right winger, Croatian, who has a bit of potential. In the last post I talked about trying to cash in on my Cameroonians and I have managed to move one of them on. After a few bids Georges Mbah has gone to divisional rivals Karpaty for a cool £1.3m. It's clear debt and allowed us to bring in some good options. Ngah is still available but I am not forcing him out. The other departures were merely squad players.

End of Season Musings.. Our two Cameroonians have massively played their part this season. They are both out of contract in 12 months time and both have made it clear that they want to explore their options. I'm hoping to sell them to give me some cash to replace them. We will be a selling club for at least a few seasons whilst we try and close the gap on Shakhtar. Georges Mbah topped the average ratings and most assists. Moussa Ngah was our top scorer. Our third best player was a loanee - so was the 4th best. Taras Halas got a cool 15 from the AMC slot. You'll notice a "Bid" in - that now says "Trn" and he's our player for the next two seasons. We've just had the sponsorship money so the finances look great.. by the end of the season we will be in significant debt. Challenge Progress: A very good season, but nothing gained. We are still on 26 points in Ukraine. A reminder that we need 100 points before we can move on. Our Pre-Season plan is simple - sell the Cameroonians for as much as possible and try and find some rough diamonds in the retained lists.

May and June 2026 Our biggest month since the last one.. Dnipro-1 away starts the 4 week period. We almost snuck a draw from it. Another late goal, more dropped points. We absolutely must beat Chornomorets, they are near the relegation zone, and it's at home. Possibly last chance saloon. They were a man down for 89 minutes. 4 goals without reply. We play 5th place Kryvbas next and then Shakhtar. So that's a maximum of 3 points. Dnipro-1 are in prime position. The point gained means we must beat the unbeaten champions for any hope of Europe. And like yeah... you know how that goes... Not a great finish to the season, but an extremely solid 1st season at this level.

April 2026 Positively flying towards the end of the season now. 5 winnable games and Dynamo Kyiv away. Kolos up first, Francisco Javier coming to the party fashionably late with a double. In between that one and the Kyiv game we secured the permanent signing of Denys Barchenko for next season and the one after. As for the game in Kyiv... seconds away from a win.. but we settle for a point. The education continues. The B licence has been started too. A simply stunning game against Rukh, we thought we had won it in the 95th minute, but were pegged back in the 96th. If we miss out on Europe, these are the games we will look back on and ask ourselves what if.. Quite simply we threw the game away against Zoria - they leap frog us too. Not a good moment In the week both Moussa Ngah and Georges Mbah tell me they are exploring their options at the end of their deals, Nbah bags a brace and we finish the month inside the qualification zone. An alright month. Should have been better though. Chasing pack have games in hand. The ink is barely dry Denys..

March 2026 An extremely busy 3 months off the field, with precisely 1 player leaving and 1 player joining.. Svyatoslav Stepaniuk has come in on loan for the rest of the season from Dynamo Kyiv, a tidy back up option on the right. Out goes Viktor Chernenko, a young full back who was never making the grade. The new boy made his debut against FC Oleksandriia and will prompty sit on the treatment table for the next 6 weeks.. Francisco Javier got his first goal for 16 hours. But we lost. 5 first team squad injured and we travel to Shakhtar... we kept them out for 120 seconds... Next to town are the senior affiliate so our No.1 keeper and AMC are automatically out. We were in the game for the majority but they are strong. 3 straight loses since the re-start, but the bottom side Minaj are next and they are yet to win all season I hate injuries... Apart from Zykov, they would all be in the 16 each week. Javier scores again and we ensure Minaj are still winless. A new defender joins the club - Mykyta Peterman, he's been in Albania for the past few seasons but he's already a strong choice in our line up. He made his debut against Veres. It's fair to say he didn't have a lot to do. We missed two penalties and still scored 8. One of the more random good days.. If we can have a strong finish then Europe is possible..

November 2025 The last month of football before we batten down the hatches until we get to March. Dnipro-1 and ourselves play out 90 minutes without a goal. Dynamo and Shakhtar though.. Kryvbas sat one place below us and battered us for the first half, but we were strong and grew into the game before winning our last home match of 2025. Polissia and Metalist 1925 who are both at the wrong end of the table. For the 2nd time this season we put 6 past Polissia. Taras Halas gets 4. Metalist game was nothing to mention. Very pleased with how it stands prior to the winter break

October 2025 Francisco Javier has kicked off that he doesn't have a friend and hasn't settled, so I've bought in a friend. Not that Javier has noticed. Mbondi has just been called up to the Spanish U19s. On the pitch, Kolos taught us a few lessons. As do Zoria. The tide feels like it's turned - or more likely teams have worked us out a little bit. Quite frankly that's what we should have expected. After an international break, where we had 2 players in the U19s, we travel to Metalist Kharkiv. We beat 1925 a month ago but Kharkiv are 3rd and well on form. A victory BUT Georges Mbah will miss the next 2-4 weeks with an injury. My 100st match as manager when we travelled to Rukh and the first in the save where NO Cameroonians featured. A victory followed by an away draw meant we finished the league month in 4th. Then we went to Shakhtar in the cup... I watched through my fingers... as the new Chelsea bloke (Mudryk) smashes a hattrick.

September 2025 This month will show (I think) just how we will fare over the course of the season - a couple of winnable games, and some tough ones. Metalist 1925 were smashed, mainly thanks to a hattrick from Moussa Ngah. Oleksandriia were beaten. Very pleasing start. We seem to be firing on all cylinders. Victory over Minaj put us top of the table. Before Dynamo Kyiv came to town.. Ngah secures the draw 10 changes for the Ukrainian Cup against one of the lower ranked sides in the league, the one player who wasn't a change (Mbah) scored the double. Unbeaten month. Quite a bit beyond my expectation. Both 2nd and 3rd should by pass us by the end of the season.

August 2025 I say "August", it's actually the last 3 days of August... The League is ON!!! We host Polissia Zhytomyr in the opening match. Quite simply a stunning way to start the season. Before we get too excited, our opponents are the only side expected to finish lower than us in the table, but 3 points is 3 points and the goal difference loves it too. Debut doubles for Halas and Javier We go to our senior affiliate in Vorskla without our 1st choice keeper or AMC - both on loan from our hosts. 3 goals in 5 first half minutes put us well and truly back in our place. Ahead of the big two... can we stop the season now?

Pre Season 2025 New Season New Ground Due to the need to have a 5,000 capacity, we are renting Politekhnik, a 1960s, 11,490 capacity ground, 24km's from our place Making that trip are a number of new faces. Most are familiar to each other as there are only 2 clubs to scout for released players in the Ukraine. Marko Kessel - back up keeper released from Shakhtar Donetsk Francisco Javier - a very good looking striker, signed from Damm (a Spanish Amateur side) Danylo Ishchenko - young left winger, released from Dynamo Kyiv Artem Benediuk - back up option in either full back position, released from Dynamo Kyiv Kristian Bako - first choice right back, released from Shakhtar Donetsk Mykyta Prokopenko - another option in midfield, season long loan from Karpaty Kyrylo Pashko - squad filler in midfield, another from Dynamo Kyiv Taras Halas - attacking midfielder from Vorskla - a season long loan from our senior affiliate I really REALLY like Javier Bako is another that seriously improves the side In the Departure Lounge: Lots of dross, nothing really of note. Free's up a heck of a lot of wage budget.

June 2025 Two games of football before we can relax and plan our debut season of Ukrainian top flight football. A couple of routine victories. We are too strong for this level. Next season we wont be. We might have a good season but we are not winning the league (i.e. getting enough points to move to the next nation) Georges Mbah and Moussa Ngah were fantastic - 36 goal contributions between the two of them. And they are still teenagers. It wont be long before the bigger European clubs start to take notice. We need them to be firing next season. Yaroslav Kvasov's 22 goals were brilliant - I'm not convinced he'll go again in the Prem but he has a deal. Illia Krupskyi is unlikely to be back next year as he has a 2yr extension with Vorskla. In terms of the challenge we have picked up 26 points this season 25 points for winning Promotion 1 point for bringing a staff member from a previous club A mere 74 more points before we can consider moving clubs/nations. Technically it's just Nation but I want to keep it to 1 club per nation if I can. The overhaul begins now..

May 2025 Just the 1 game this month. For us it's meaningless. A goal for debutant Artur Murza secured the win. He was on a free and is on par with Ngah. After scrambling to improve the youth set up, we've been poached.. 3 scholars signed deals this year. Konov has already made the first team squad.

April 2025 Could well be something of nothing. Just hope it's resolved by the summer as I don't need an embargo. Yaroslav Kvasov recently got a new deal and the supporters were "surprised" as they didn't think he deserved one.. A hat-trick and we are another step closer to promotion. Guess who was the match winner. 25pts achieved as we get the promotion to the big time. Next season will be very tough - the big two are ma-hu-sive. We pick up another point in the challenge by convincing John Obi Mikel to join the coaching staff. He was with me in Cameroon too. The Chair is definately going.. and the very next day.. He's cleared the debt... Let's call some meetings... I can't do a coaching course Junior Coaching has been improved to Adequate Youth Recruitment has become fairly basic

March 2025 7 games over the next 5 months. We are 10pts clear of 5th place. The top 2 go up automatically and 3rd and 4th have to beat 13th and 14th in the Premier League over two legs to get promoted. We should get 1 of these 4 places. Our veteran Yaroslav Kvasov got a double and we are off and running. Tempered slightly by Moussa Ngah breaking a bone in his toe. With games spread out he'll only miss a couple. There's something about LNZ Cherkasy that mean we can't beat them at their place. Well placed is the phrase