Jean Michaël Seri 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 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 NK Maribor 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Tetteh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Filip Skubic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against NK Celje? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
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 Jan Mlakar is on it.
A 2‑0 win over Jesenice, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
David Pejičić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
At 19 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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NK Maribor, and 5 appearances in 10 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Luka Mlakar
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Luka Mlakar has come out of that comparison in the side, and NK Maribor have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. NK Maribor told Žan Jevšenak something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
It needed Tio Cipot to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Olimpija Ljubljana, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.10 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Maribor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Tetteh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every NK Maribor game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slovan Ljubljana runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Filip Skubic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Olimpija Ljubljana.
Chances created: 10. Nothing on the scoresheet and everything in the match: the pass before the pass, over and over, until the defence stopped guessing right.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Tetteh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Žiga Repas’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and NK Maribor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Aluminij in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tio Cipot signs something — a contract at NK Maribor or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 6 on 10 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
3 goals in 9 games at Ilirija 1911 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at NK Maribor updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Radomlje will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. NK Maribor were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Maribor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Tio Cipot 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.
Marked 8.29 — 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.
Jean Michaël Seri 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at NK Maribor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Tetteh 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at NK Maribor, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout28 Sep 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 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Filip Skubic to a room that had heard them before.
Position 9 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The offer from Victoriia Sumy for Benjamin Tetteh 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Tetteh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kalamata had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at NK Maribor, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
NK Maribor close the window on a squad of their own making
8 in and 10 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The offer from Bravo for Ali Reghba 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.
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Jadran Dekani moved on, Isaac Tshipamba reports back to NK Maribor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Luka Zahovič 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Dario Vizinger has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at NK Maribor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Tetteh 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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. NK Maribor have paid $4.4M for Nemanja Motika, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Red Bull Salzburg keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nemanja Motika was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $4.4M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Benjamin Tetteh was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad24 Aug 2026
11 new faces, and NK Maribor are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
At 38 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.97 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $4.8M — a club that wants Nemanja Motika enough to be asked twice.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Domzale have kept their man, and NK Maribor go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
NK Maribor have gone to Olimpija Ljubljana with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Filip Kosi has just signed for NK Maribor, and for once the answer mattered.
The offer went to Mura 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.
Jean Michaël Seri 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.