Last time out Chepiga guided Pripyat to survival in their first season in Ukraine’s second tier (Persha Liha).

If you missed it you can catch up using the link below.

The RE-Builders of Pripyat Season 5 - Firefighting on FM20

The hopes for Season 6 were more of the same, survival by any means. However, all available metrics suggest that we have little hope.

The first major blow of the season was the loss of star player and Perhsa Liha top scorer Alexandr Fomichev.

Karpaty triggered his meagre release clause of £55,000 right at the end of the transfer window. With no time to replace his star striker Chepiga had little choice but to go into the season with what he had, and hope it was enough.

By the halfway point in the season it was clear, it wasn’t enough. With only nine matches left after the Winter break, and with Pripyat occupying a relegation playoff spot, Chepiga had to act fast to save the season, and himself.

Failure of the Pripyat project would almost certainly see Chepiga ‘disappeared’, the Russians had little use for his radioactive riddled body now anyway. He was a liability to them, truth be told. To stave off his own death, for a while at least, he would have to ask for help.

Chepiga and the Black Crow Corporation

"Once you owe a man, he owns you."

He lifted the telephone receiver and dialled the number scrawled on the back of the Black Crow matchbox he had been given. He hadn’t spoken to his old boss, Andrey Averyanov, since he left for Argentina to take up a position of Director of Football at Black Crow Ushuaia, shortly after the sightseeing trip to Salisbury had gone so horribly wrong.

It had come as no surprise to Chepiga that the “corporation” had been investigating possible expansion into the Donbass area of Ukraine, after all, where social chaos reigns, big companies are never far behind. Chepiga planned to secure one last meeting with his old commander, there would be a price to pay, but he needed his help.

He had already dealt with Black Crow once before when they showed an unhealthy interest in his young striker Olexandr Porod’ko, Chepiga had managed to scare them off before they could approach the young man. Now it was he, on the way to meet Averyanov to ask for his help, he needed a striker, and he needed one fast. He had nothing to offer but his word that he will ‘pay them back’. One day, the "corporation" would coming knocking, Averyanov was ruthless, and a favour like this never goes unclaimed, Chepiga knew that much.

The meeting was a more pleasant affair than he had initially imagined. The interior of the restaurant was a dark burgundy colour, the reassuring aroma of a thousand cigarettes lingered in the air, a fond reminder of times sadly past. Chepiga cared little for the rules, he lit his cigarette, and it crackled into life between his swollen fingers. The smoke that licked the back of his throat burnt as he inhaled, the texture markedly coarser than he remembered.

He surveyed the room once more, and counted more staff than Patreons, minders, he thought, normally a warning sign. As it was, he reassuringly found his old boss as engaging as ever. They talked of happier times in Chechnya and Crimea along with the drunken antics at Averyanov's daughter’s wedding. After a few hours of friendly discussions, they finally got down to business. Within the hour Chepiga left with the signature of not just one Argentinian striker, Facundo Klas, but also a promising right winger, Alejandro Altamiranda also came in on loan.

The deals were sealed with an elbow bump at which point the meeting took a darker turn. Averyanov's tone was low and sinister, “We can rely on you Chepiga, when the time comes? The corporation has certain expectations for their help, but you understand the workings of the world, this is how it is. We will be in touch.”

Spring 2025

Going into the final nine games of the season Chepiga had renewed confidence that he could save Pripyat. An early debut goal for Facundo Klas put Pripyat ahead against Ingulents Petrove, but it would not last, three second half goals confirming another defeat. Unfortunately, a string of late goals conceded meant Pripyat only recorded two wins in nine, three draws, and four defeats. The most damaging of which came against Kremin, a game in which Pripyat found themselves down to eight men.

As a manger Chepiga likes his teams to 'get stuck in' but suspensions were already a problem even before this game. Perhaps a more sedate approach is required as Pripyat move up the divisions and come across better, smarter, players.

Pripyat did manage to keep Kremin out until they scored in added time on top of the allotted injury time, amidst some of the worst referring ever seen. Chepiga was certain an outside agent was involved but could not find any proof.

This defeat confirmed Pripyat would need to negotiate the relegation playoffs to secure their Persha Liha survival. The two-legged play off would be against Cherkaschyna, who had finished 2nd in the Druha Liha Group B. Pripyat travelled down the Dnieper River to the Central stadium in Cherkasy to face their fate. Yet another late 1-0 away defeat was perhaps better than the bookmakers thought, but Chepiga knew it would be a tall order to turn this around at home without any away goals.

The second leg started much like the first with Pripyat being over-run in midfield, it did not take long for their defence to be breached. With the aggregate score now at 2-0, Pripyat needed three unanswered goals for victory.

Chepiga, stood on the touchline surveying the pitch as he would a battlefield. If he was at war, what would he do? Retreat? Take cover? Wait for the end, cowering in fear? Absolutely not, he would meet fire with fire. He took the nuclear option and went attacking 4-4-2 with two pressing forwards, and two attacking wingers.

Five unanswered goals followed to fire Cherkaschyna back down the Dnieper River and back, more importantly, into the Druha Liha. My favourite goal was our fourth, Cherkaschyna were still attacking us fairly hard. Argentine new boy, Altamiranda won the ball and immediately plays a direct ball over the top of their pushed up defence for young striker Ahlenfeld to run onto and finish impeccably.

End of Season

So, we avoided relegation by the skin of our teeth, the loss of star striker Alexandr Fomichev hit us harder than I thought and highlights the need for better forward planning when it comes to transfers in the future. It is worth keeping things in perspective given our predicted finish and minuscule wage spend, we have certainly overachieved and that is reflected in our B- report from the board. Our player of the season was young centre back Andriy Fedorchuk, on loan from Olimpik-Donetsk. In breaking news, we have already secured an extension to his loan deal so he will be around next season.

Looking Ahead

What are our aims now?

The overall aim of the save is to take Pripyat to the top division in Ukraine. We remain on course to do that. With only three weeks between the end of the season and the start of the next one I fully expect another long relegation battle, but early indications are we have received a decent reputation boost as the number of players interested in joining did appear much longer on first look. It may also be time to explore the loan market more, I have resisted it so far but if we want to take Pripyat to the next level it may become a necessity. The absence of prize money and next to no sponsorship is hitting us hard.

In closing I'd like to thank Chris Johnson of Black Crow Ushuaia for agreeing to this cross save exercise, it was a lot of fun discussing the transfers across save universes. Hopefully Chepiga can help add a bit of Russian grit to young Altamiranda before he returns to Southern Argentina.

If you want to investigate a bit more on the real life Chepiga and Averyanov multiple photographs and videos discovered by Bellingcat and journalists at Radio Svoboda show Anatoliy Chepiga, one of the two GRU intelligence officers accused of carrying out the Skripal poisoning in Salisbury in 2018, at the 2017 wedding of the daughter of Major General Andrey Vladimirovich Averyanov, the commander of the GRU military unit 29155.

There was also a recent BBC program on the Salisbury Poisonings which you can still watch on the BBC iPlayer.

In closing, I hope you are all doing well. These are strange times we are living in, that is without a shadow of a doubt. It is important that we all look after, not only our physical health, but our mental health as well. Please don't be afraid to reach out if you are struggling. As a society we need to learn to look out for each other better, perhaps that is the one good thing that can come out of this mess.
If you have some time on your hands for what remains of lockdown then you can catch up on my FM20 save here.

You can find me on twitter here and I will also be providing sporadic updates about the save and various other things on my slack channel #fmeadster.

Over and out FMEadster!