Vladimir Shepelev has signed a new contract with Dynamo Kyiv. The new agreement will be valid until the end of 2025. The current contract was due to expire at the end of the current season. In January, Vladimir could sign a preliminary contract with any club.
Anton Tsarenko. Photo by Yurii YurievFor Dynamo, such short-term contracts are something new. Usually, players sign longer contracts. I can't remember the last time Kyiv extended their agreements for only one and a half to two years. Perhaps, only with Carlos De Pena, who was already in his 30s.
I think there is logic in this. There are no comfort zones. A footballer has to prove his right to be in the sun, and not relax by signing a long contract for 5 years.
Shepelev will be 27 this summer. He has been in the first team since Serhii Rebrov's time in charge. Since then, he has not had the status of a stable first-team player. Now he is at the best age of football, so we need to sign a contract on good terms and for a long time. The question is: does he deserve it?
Shepelev hasn't made any significant progress. Perhaps he needs a new challenge to reboot his career? He is not an asset for the club, he can hardly make any further serious progress or bring results in individual actions. So now everything looks more like a compromise. The club's system has no replacement among young players, and during the war, the transfer policy does not provide for serious acquisitions. The player himself needs to play successfully for a certain period to count on good offers. It is unlikely that in his current status, Volodymyr can count on serious offers.
The situation with Shepelev's contract is far from unique. In the near future, the club will need to decide on the fate of a number of players, as their contracts are coming to an end. It is necessary to either sell the players or sign new agreements.
Anton Tsarenko has a contract until the end of 2024. The contracts of Denys Popov, Vladyslav Dubinchak, and Oleksandr Tymchyk are until the summer of 2025. Nikolay Shaparenko, Alexander Sirota, Alexander Andrievsky - until 30 September 2025. Konstantin Vivcharenko - until the end of 2025. These are not long contracts at all. Time will fly by very quickly.
Every player wants to understand their prospects. Not so long ago, there was information about Girona's interest in Tymchyk. This can be seen as the Spanish club's desire to sign a player whose contract is coming to an end at a low cost, or the player's pressure to get a new deal.
There must be certainty for each player. To what extent does the club see the development prospects of individual players? Or the ability to achieve results? Some players will need to be let go because it makes no sense to extend their contract and they will need to be sold in the next transfer window to get compensation. Someone will need to continue working with us.
Serhii Tyshchenko
