The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Position 3, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking 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 Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Dinamo Brest have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bruno Mišura. The answer from Hajduk Split has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 0 appearances in 32 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
5 goals in 18 games at Lucko — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Hajduk Split people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Hajduk Split may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom7 Feb 2028
Deadline passes with 3 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Hajduk Split 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.
The offer from Neman for Bruno Mišura 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.
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.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at OFI runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hajduk Split will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Hajduk Split have gone to Bahia 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hajduk Split have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Hajduk Split will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
$870.0K on the table at Lokomotiva Zagreb. 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 have gone to Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Lokomotiva Zagreb have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hajduk Split will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo 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.
8 goals in 15 games at Dugopolje — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
2‑4 against Standard Liege. 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bruno Mišura will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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 Hajduk Split hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
6 goals in one match, Michele Šego on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and Standard Liege.
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.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Hajduk Split heard it as anything else.
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.
“I did not go to OFI to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hajduk Split and fight for my place.” 3 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Iker Pozo 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Michele Šego
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Michele Šego has come out of that comparison in the side, and Hajduk Split have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
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.
3‑2 against Luzern, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Tomáš Chorý was at the centre of the description.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
A brace, and Tomáš Chorý takes the afternoon — 9.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomáš Chorý provided it, and the 9.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Leander Dendoncker 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Lovre Rogić will call it something else in private.
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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with NK Osijek the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Hajduk Split will enjoy reviewing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Michele Šego was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
Leander Dendoncker 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.
“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 Hajduk Split hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Iker Pozo 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 8.26 — 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 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 0 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
With 4 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.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Livaja has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutThe view from the dugout
Player ratingsThe one thing Michele Šego could not do
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Hajduk Split will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Vitebsk for Bruno Mišura 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.
“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 Hajduk Split hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Iker Pozo 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.
The fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Hajduk Split will be judged on one thing only.
“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 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
24 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bodo/Glimt did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $7.0M for Tomáš Chorý, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Tomáš Chorý has, at Hajduk Split, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Albion have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Leander Dendoncker and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match21 Aug 2027
After 8 games, Hajduk Split finally taste it again
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 HNK Gorica; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
In brief
The terracesHajduk Split spend $7.0M on the signing the town wanted
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Hajduk Split and Bodo/Glimt have settled on $7.0M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.95
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.95 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
A brace, and Michele Šego takes the afternoon — 8.98
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Michele Šego provided it, and the 8.98 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
1 for Leander Dendoncker, marked 7.92, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Karl Harry Leban 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.
8 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
HNK Rijeka paid $16.0K and Hajduk Split took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Marko Sutalo 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.
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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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 Hajduk Split this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cibalia have kept their man, and Hajduk Split go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Hajduk Split will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hajduk Split have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The fee is $6.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Zadar drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
“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 Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kristijan Kovac has just signed for Hajduk Split, and for once the answer mattered.
Istra 1961 paid $1.4M and Hajduk Split took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Marino Skelin is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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: Kristijan Kovac from Zadar for $6.1M, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hajduk Split have had the benefit of it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Marino Skelin 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 Iker Pozo 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.
Market31 May 2027
Dante Stipica returns from a loan that taught him nothing
0 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
In brief
The dugoutDavyd Fesyuk asks for a word with the manager
This is the season the town will measure the next twenty against. The trophy travels home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Two goals and a mark of 8.30 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.79 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Toni Ruso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
At 22 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.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad10 May 2027
Iker Pozo 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.
“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 10 appearances in 39 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Haji Wright is on it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I watch every Hajduk Split game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hrvatski Dragovoljac runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Lovre Rogić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dmytro Zudin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Iker Pozo was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 7 appearances in 31 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hajduk Split they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Pozo 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 did not go to Hrvatski Dragovoljac to sit and watch. I want to come back to Hajduk Split and fight for my place.” 11 appearances in 33 matches say the rest.
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 Marko Livaja is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Šimun Hrgović signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Hajduk Split. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Leander Dendoncker’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Iker Pozo 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 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Marko Livaja signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Hajduk Split that is a harder question to answer.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
“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.
“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 Hajduk Split know it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Toni Ruso will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Hajduk Split have paid $7.1M for Iker Pozo, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Lucko waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Iker Pozo is living that version at Hajduk Split, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Hajduk Split close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Iker Pozo was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.1M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
In brief
SquadŠimun Hrgović falls out with a teammate over standards
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Hajduk Split have gone to Polissia 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
Hajduk Split have gone to Zadar 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.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Hajduk Split have had the benefit of it.
The offer went to Rudes 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.
The phone has started ringing about Toni Silić again, and this time the name on the line is CFR Cluj. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
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 Leander Dendoncker is on it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Lovre Lončar
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
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.
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 Ivica Ivušić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
1‑6 against PSV. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
40 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.
7 goals in one match, Marin Šotiček on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Hajduk Split and PSV.
Luka Hodak 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.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Ron Raçi.
26 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hajduk Split lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Hajduk Split will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Haji Wright had done his part in building a 3-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Lokomotiva Zagreb were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 8.51 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Haji Wright takes the afternoon — 8.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Haji Wright provided it, and the 8.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Adrion Pajaziti 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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split 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. 47 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 3‑0 against NK Varazdin, and it could have been more.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A brace, and Marko Livaja takes the afternoon — 9.65
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Marko Livaja provided it, and the 9.65 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Hajduk Split can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Mateo Vrsaljko after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Hajduk Split, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Hajduk Split would admit. It shows on Saturdays.