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It's December 29, 2023 and the transfer window is about to open. After 19 rounds, Metalist is fourth and the main problem now is scoring, only 27 goals scored and this is the 11th result in the league out of 16 teams. Previously, a loan agreement was agreed for Valery Bondar from Shakhtar which will cover the entire salary of the player and I consider this a very good signing because he is only 24 years old and has good potential. Also in the summer, a regen was signed from Brazil, Mateus Henrique Reis, who is 17 years old and does not need a place in registration

Now February 24, 2024. Ahead of the Europa League match against Sporting in the first round of the playoffs. Since last season we took 2nd place and qualified for the Champions League where we lost to Olympiacos. As a result, Metalist got into the Europa League and got a group with Lyon, Villarreal and Karabakh. After the victory over Karabakh 4:2 and the defeat from Villarreal 1:0, we had 2 matches with Lyon. Initially, I did not count on the playoffs of the Europa League, but a 1-0 victory at the Kharkiv Arena thanks to Peixoto's goal made me reconsider my plans and try to catch on to the Europa League. We had a difficult trip to Lyon. I was hoping to catch at least a point in the match and then there would be good hopes for qualifying for the next round. And in the end, the genius Peixoto scored in the 73rd minute, bringing us a 1-1 draw. Ahead was the match with Villarreal, despite the fact that we lost 1-0 we were waiting for good news after the end of the match. Lyon lost to Karabakh 1:0. in the end, we needed not to lose in Azerbaijan and we did it by drawing 3:3. We have reached the playoffs, but we have a difficult task ahead of us - to beat Sporting. Of all the options like Liverpool, Inter or Borussia Dortmund, we ended up in Lisbon, but we could get teams like Sion or Copenhagen. Now about the transfer window. It's not over yet and I'm planning on signing a central midfielder but that's not about that now. We sold Jonathan Buatu to Genk for 300,000 euros. Not a bad price given that he was in the foreigners and was not the main central defender. Pedrinho Boya was also sold for 1.5 million to Santos. He showed promise but did not play, if last season he made 5 + 6, then this year 1 + 1 in 11 matches. As already mentioned earlier, Bondar and a young regen from Brazil came, but I will not focus on this. I needed a left back because my main one often failed in the Europa League matches. I found a free agent, Congolese Chris Mavinga. He is 32, I plan to take him for six months or a year, then I will look for a younger left-back, but for now he will close the hole well. I also like his performance, especially his 186 cm height makes him a good center back when needed. And the main signing of this window is Andriy Yarmolenko. Of course, he is 34, but his skills are very good, especially since I took him for 1 million euros, which is a ridiculous price for such an elite winger by the standards of Ukraine. He is with European Cup experience, he will also be a good mentor for my young players, so I think I got a good deal.