5‑1 against Partizan, 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.80 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hajduk Split and Partizan in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Patrick Pentz 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.
Marked 9.09 — 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 is 22 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.
Patrick Pentz 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.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.37, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Mateusz Bogusz was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.07. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
“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 Hajduk Split, and 2 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Michele Šego. 1‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nobody at Hajduk Split 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 dugoutSomebody else is better right now than Ivica Ivušić
2‑1 against Lokomotiv Sofia, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Michele Šego scored in the 88th minute, Lokomotiv Sofia had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Hajduk Split took the lot.
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. 14 actions, 7.33, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The medical room confirms 23 days on the sidelines for Karl Harry Leban, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Patrick Pentz 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.
Michele Šego 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.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Patrick Pentz 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split 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: Mateusz Bogusz. 2‑1 against Istra 1961, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is 20 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.
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.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Hajduk Split deserved better, and so did he.
In brief
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
The dugoutCarlos Martín has become a man the manager trusts
1‑0 against Dinamo Zagreb, and the songs went on long after the whistle. League positions come and go; days like this get retold at family dinners for years.
1‑3 against Ajax. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
There were 88 minutes on the clock and Dinamo Zagreb had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Hajduk Split did not stop to explain themselves.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Hajduk Split supporters have already started telling it.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Lucko runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Abdoulie Sanyang provided it, and the 9.51 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
19 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrick Pentz 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.
He is 22 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adrion Pajaziti provided it, and the 8.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 4 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
8 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Hajduk Split and Slaven Belupo in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
“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.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Hajduk Split have paid $3.6M for Jakub Markovič, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Patrick Pentz 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
10 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Hajduk Split know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Everything agreed with Lokomotiv Moscow, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Luis Binks 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.
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.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Randers scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
Brondby have made the call to Bodo/Glimt. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Successful dribbles: 40. 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.
HNK Gorica will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Hajduk Split were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.71 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $3.6M has been paid because Patrick Pentz is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
$3.6M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
4 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.
Brondby asked and Elche said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Add another name to the list: Hajduk Split have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Patrick Pentz. The answer from Brondby has not changed — yet.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.84 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
$1.4M on the table at Randers. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Hajduk Split offered $16.9M; Slavia Prague 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.
The offer went to Houston Dynamo 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.
Hajduk Split have gone to Brondby 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.
The offer from Hrvatski Dragovoljac for Marino Skelin 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.
HNK Vukovar 1991 pay $98.0K, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The offer from Hobro for Marko Divković 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 phone has started ringing about Sho Fukuda again, and this time the name on the line is Sagan Tosu. Brondby are listening politely and promising nothing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Brondby this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oskar Fenger commits to Brondby for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Sean Klaiber 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.
A loan enquiry to FC Midtjylland: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad3 Aug 2026
5 new faces, and Brondby 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.