31 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TSC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
16 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at TSC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The first defeat in 8 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Crvena Zvezda; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Prestige Mboungou 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.
8 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; TSC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Shavy Babicka. 1‑0 against Radnicki 1923, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Marked 8.20 — 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.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TSC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
15 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 TSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. TSC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
40 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TSC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
12 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Add another name to the list: Kudrivka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Vahid Gicić. The answer from TSC has not changed — yet.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 17 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
47 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TSC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 17 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. TSC rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and OFK Beograd had no answer to any of it.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around TSC people have started saying his name in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Uroš Mihailović has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
The words a physio says slowly. 54 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason TSC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 9.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. TSC have lost him in all but the paperwork.
11 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Prestige Mboungou 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Abube Onuchukwu is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
68 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. TSC lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 40 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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 TSC, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at TSC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at TSC 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason TSC will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; TSC are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Slobodan Urošević 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. TSC told Nikola Simić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” TSC have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at TSC can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Prestige Mboungou 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 had been thinking. Stefan Jovanović 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.
7 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.
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 Prestige Mboungou is on it.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TSC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 67 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Maritzburg United waiting with a shirt. Nobody at TSC is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. TSC lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Crvena Zvezda have accepted the money. What TSC do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
TSC had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Astra, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Prestige Mboungou 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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Shavy Babicka from Crvena Zvezda for $2.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Prestige Mboungou provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. TSC have done the hard part with Crvena Zvezda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The phone has started ringing about Stanley Nwabali again, and this time the name on the line is Mlada Boleslav. TSC are listening politely and promising nothing.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and TSC go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
14 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crvena Zvezda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Cukaricki waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Crvena Zvezda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Zeleznicar Pancevo have kept their man, and Crvena Zvezda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
$880.0K on the table at Mladost Lucani. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Rodrigo Bentancur 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Darko Nikolić has just signed for TSC, and for once the answer mattered.
TSC asked and Crvena Zvezda said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at TSC this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
Two goals and a mark of 9.42 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Two goals and a mark of 8.55 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Crvena Zvezda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Crvena Zvezda can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Saša Lukić 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.
10 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Darwin Núñez 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.
Every club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
10 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nemanja Radonjić provided it, and the 8.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Crvena Zvezda hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joseph Aidoo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
13 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
4‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings9 Oct 2028
A brace, and Darwin Núñez takes the afternoon — 9.49
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Darwin Núñez provided it, and the 9.49 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Crvena Zvezda have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Crvena Zvezda heard it as anything else.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mihailo Ristić and Crvena Zvezda agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Harrison Ashby is living that version at Crvena Zvezda, and it tends to show in the first month.
In brief
Player ratingsBamba Dieng was on a different afternoon to everybody else
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Shavy Babicka at his very best
9 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rodina waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Crvena Zvezda is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Timi Max Elšnik provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.91, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Rodrigo Bentancur wants continental football; whether Crvena Zvezda can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
A last season at home is what Joseph Aidoo is after
It is sentimental, it is completely genuine, and it is the beginning of a departure nobody has announced. The club can be gracious about it or it can pretend not to have heard.
Spartak Subotica will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Crvena Zvezda were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
6 straight away victories. Sides that win away are usually sides that can defend and can counter, and the table has begun to reflect what those journeys have earned.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 11 signed and 18 gone
That is the business done at Crvena Zvezda until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Jovan Šljivić reports back to Crvena Zvezda with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Dejan Zukić obliged against Javor-Matis. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Crvena Zvezda.
7 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Crvena Zvezda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Bamba Dieng 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 deal that would have taken Jovan Popović to Alashkert has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Crvena Zvezda with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Marked 10.00 — 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Crvena Zvezda have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vasilije Kostov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
“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 Crvena Zvezda, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Jubilo Iwata for Shavy Babicka 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.
Bamba Dieng 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vasilije Kostov is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darwin Núñez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Crvena Zvezda will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Mihailo Ristić 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.
Squad1 May 2028
Words at Crvena Zvezda training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Joseph Aidoo 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Crvena Zvezda are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
1‑0 against Trabzonspor, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Nemanja Radonjić was at the centre of the description.
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Aleksandar Katai will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Crvena Zvezda the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Crvena Zvezda can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darwin Núñez was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
3‑0 against Trabzonspor, on a night that will be replayed at this club for a generation. Continental reputations are made in single evenings and this was the evening.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Crvena Zvezda is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joseph Aidoo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.28 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 Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bamba Dieng. 2‑1 against Novi Pazar, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Joseph Aidoo 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.
Javor-Matis will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Crvena Zvezda were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Nemanja Radonjić provided it, and the 8.24 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Joseph Aidoo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
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.” Marko Gacinovic kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Ivan Guteša