Ebrima Singhateh 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jordhy Thompson 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 would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout19 Apr 2027
Lukáš Endl is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
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 Dominik Mašek is on it.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Ruzomberok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Adrián Slávik and MFK Ruzomberok agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Oliver Luterán trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at MFK Ruzomberok, another week without a signature from Justice Apaingolo.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. MFK Ruzomberok lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Jordhy Thompson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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 given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and MFK Ruzomberok know 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.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. MFK Ruzomberok lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Adam Tučný and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Lukáš Endl's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Kostka 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.
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dominik Kostka and MFK Ruzomberok agree another 3 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 MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Ebrima Singhateh 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 Dominik Kostka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at MFK Ruzomberok, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
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 Dominik Mašek is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at MFK Ruzomberok would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Adam Tučný 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.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Kostka 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.
MFK Ruzomberok asked and Spartak 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.
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 Ebrima Singhateh is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. MFK Ruzomberok know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Adam Tučný 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 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.
MFK Ruzomberok asked and Viking said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and MFK Ruzomberok know which stage they are at.
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined 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 MFK Ruzomberok, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The phone has started ringing about Marián Chobot again, and this time the name on the line is Tatran Prešov. MFK Ruzomberok are listening politely and promising nothing.
Ebrima Singhateh 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.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Kostka 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.
MFK Ruzomberok have made the call to CSKA Moscow. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. MFK Ruzomberok have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ebrima Singhateh 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sparta Prague have kept their man, and MFK Ruzomberok go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Egnatia Rrogozhinë have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MFK Ruzomberok have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. David Jackuliak was one of the reasons people came, and $370.0K does not replace that by itself.
The offer from FC Košice for Alexander Selecký was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
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.
Everything agreed with DAC Dunajska Streda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Timotej Múdry has come up in conversations MFK Ruzomberok were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MFK Ruzomberok can tell you which week it ends in.
Ebrima Singhateh 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.
MFK Ruzomberok asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Adam Kucka after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
There were 12 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Matěj Koubek 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.
Daniel Köstl 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.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
In brief
The dugoutDominik Mašek has become a man the manager trusts
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MFK Ruzomberok have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
0‑1 to Slovan Bratislava, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Dec 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 Adam Kucka to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Lukáš Endl is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Ebrima Singhateh has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Ebrima Singhateh 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.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alexander Mojžiš commits to MFK Ruzomberok for another 4 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Matěj Koubek 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.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adam Tučný. 2‑0 against Tatran Prešov, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.82, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Adam Kucka, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Matěj Koubek 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 Samuel Lavrinčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a MFK Ruzomberok man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Oliver Luterán was the best thing in any of them.
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Marked 8.03 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
“I did not go to Považská Bystrica to sit and watch. I want to come back to MFK Ruzomberok and fight for my place.” 4 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Adam Kucka kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Successful dribbles: 13. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Adam Tučný 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matěj Koubek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Lukáš Endl is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Attila Horváth has his answer from MFK Ruzomberok; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 101th minute. MFK Michalovce will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MFK Ruzomberok have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Ebrima Singhateh 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.
He is 23 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.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 11 actions, 6.99, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” MFK Ruzomberok have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Ruzomberok this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Matěj Koubek 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at MFK Ruzomberok can tell you which week it ends in.
Ebrima Singhateh 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matěj Koubek 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.
9 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.
The dugout5 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 Adam Kucka to a room that had heard them before.
The bid was some way short and MFK Ruzomberok did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at MFK Ruzomberok training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matěj Koubek 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.
Slovan Bratislava left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout14 Sep 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 0‑1 Adam Kucka left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at MFK Ruzomberok will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 26 arrived, 17 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Dinamo Bucharest keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Bojan Đorđić 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.
Tomáš Kocour 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 demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Mamadou Koné is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Michal Řezáč
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Michal Řezáč has come out of that comparison in the side, and Vlašim have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. David Jackuliak had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
A brace, and Matěj Koubek takes the afternoon — 7.83
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matěj Koubek provided it, and the 7.83 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
MFK Ruzomberok offered $4.5M; Ethnikos Achnas 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.
Martin Bačík has gone, the accounts have $280.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
MFK Ruzomberok asked and Dukla Banská Bystrica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The offer from České Budějovice for Filip Zorvan was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Ebrima Singhateh reports back to Jablonec with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The offer went to Zlin 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.
Add another name to the list: Istra 1961 have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Tomáš Schánělec. The answer from Jablonec has not changed — yet.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lamin Jawo. 1‑0 against Hradec Králové, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.00 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Martin Nový has, at Vlašim, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
The shirt still fits. Martin Nový is back at Vlašim, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Bojan Đorđić 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. Jablonec have kept their man, and Vlašim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Hynek Hruška 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Hynek Hruška. 2‑0 against Chrudim, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Soucek 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. Patrik Vydra 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.