Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Patrik Mijić 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jurica Pršir 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.
HNK Gorica asked and Dinamo 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.
Boardroom23 Aug 2027
Nobody left the HNK Gorica dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Nobody at HNK Gorica 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 Stefan Perić
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hrvace waiting with a shirt. Nobody at HNK Gorica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason HNK Gorica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
HNK Gorica had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Shakhtar, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Patrik Mijić 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 Jul 2027
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jurica Pršir 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.
HNK Gorica asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
17 appearances and 3 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Bruno Bogojević's mistake
Stefan Perić 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 Jurica Pršir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
6 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at HNK Gorica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at HNK Gorica no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
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 Domagoj Pavičić is on it.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Fran Stunja’s exile
17 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Prosper Obah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Luka Vrzić is on 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 HNK Gorica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
4 goals in 27 games at Uskok — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at HNK Gorica updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HNK Gorica know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at HNK Gorica. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Patrik Mijić 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 Prosper Obah was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Ivan Križanović has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means HNK Gorica have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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 HNK Gorica, and 1 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Bruno Bogojević'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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakov Filipović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. HNK Gorica know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at BSK Bijelo Brdo 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 Fran Peček was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Carl Davordzie 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 BSK Bijelo Brdo would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. BSK Bijelo Brdo know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Semir Smajlagić 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 phone has started ringing about Tadej Bonaca again, and this time the name on the line is NK Krka. BSK Bijelo Brdo are listening politely and promising nothing.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. BSK Bijelo Brdo will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
Nobody at BSK Bijelo Brdo 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 is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation BSK Bijelo Brdo are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Cibalia had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at BSK Bijelo Brdo is enjoying the guessing.
3 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.
Semir Smajlagić 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.
BSK Bijelo Brdo asked and Karlovac 1919 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Damjan Mugoša 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” HNK Gorica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Add another name to the list: BSK Bijelo Brdo have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Stefan Perić. The answer from HNK Gorica has not changed — yet.
Zvonimir Šarlija 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 offer went to Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Prosper Obah 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.
HNK Gorica asked and NK Varazdin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Sesvete will make the call about Domagoj Pavičić this week. HNK Gorica have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
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 Wisdom Sule is on it.
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what HNK Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
Jakov Filipović 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at HNK Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Prosper Obah 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.
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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at HNK Gorica, and 7 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Tin Došen had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$260.0K settles it between the clubs for Noel Bodetić
HNK Rijeka have accepted the money. What HNK Gorica do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at HNK Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Jurica Pršir 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.
9 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.
It needed Patrik Mijić to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against HNK Rijeka, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Ivica Boric chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout17 Aug 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Stefan Perić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.