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.
Dario Marešić 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 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Karlo Muhar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Hajduk Split has been clear about where Abdoulie Sanyang stands, which is more than many ever get.
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 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.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Hajduk Split would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Josip Perajica’s exile
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.
Marko Livaja 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 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 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Something was said to Abdoulie Sanyang and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Marko Livaja watches a signing take the shirt he was promised
At 34 the pathway was supposed to be open. Instead Hajduk Split went to the market, and a local readership is asking the question the academy staff are too diplomatic to ask out loud.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raymond Anthony was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
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.
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.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karlo Muhar 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.
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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hajduk Split, another week without a signature from Komnen Andrić.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Hajduk Split have done the hard part with HNK Rijeka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trnje waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“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.
Marko Livaja 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Karlo Muhar 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.
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.
Šimun Hrgović 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.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roko Vojvodić 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.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Loan watch20 Dec 2027
Davyd Fesyuk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
8 clean sheets from 19 appearances at Sesvete. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
45 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.
Position 3, 25 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.
At 19 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.
He is 23 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
“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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Roko Brajković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Dario Marešić 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 new man at Hajduk Split has worked with Ilja Lantratov before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
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.
Qualification is secured, and next season the big floodlit nights are continental ones. For the players it is a stage; for the accounts it is a lifeline; for the supporters it is passports.
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.
15 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Marešić 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.
24 appearances and 6 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.
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.
Marko Livaja 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 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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Hajduk Split and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathieu Acapandié will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak 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 9 appearances in 27 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Ron Raçi'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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Mathieu Acapandié 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 Carlos Martín is on it.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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.
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.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Hajduk Split has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Loan watch15 Feb 2027
Davyd Fesyuk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 18 appearances at Dubrava. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Leander Dendoncker and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Position 4 on 28 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
Loan watch21 Dec 2026
Davyd Fesyuk’s loan is measured in nothing happening
5 clean sheets from 16 appearances at Dubrava. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
0‑2 away to the standard of OB. Nobody will pretend this was a scandal; the gap is real, it is measurable, and closing it is a project rather than a team talk.
7.30, 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.
Marko Livaja 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 finished 2‑0, and it was Carlos Martín’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Hajduk Split.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Carlos Martín was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.35. 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.
The fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
Something was said to Joao Ortiz and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Leander Dendoncker, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Luka Hodak 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.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb next, and one man in the Hajduk Split dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
5 goals in 13 games at Croatia Zmijavci — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hajduk Split updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michele Šego signs something — a contract at Hajduk Split or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Luka Jurak’s exile
0‑2 against KAA Gent, and an evening that measured the gap rather than the ninety minutes. Nothing about it was a disgrace and nothing about it was close.
Abdoulie Sanyang 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Abdoulie Sanyang. 1‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Hodak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Leander Dendoncker.
“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.
The offer went to NK Osijek 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Hajduk Split close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 9 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $2.4M — a club that wants Luka Vrbančić enough to be asked twice.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Leander Dendoncker is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Hajduk Split prefer.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Luka Hodak 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 approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Duje Matić, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.69
A mark of 7.69 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
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.
The name of Duje Matić has come up in conversations Hajduk Split were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
At 19 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Hajduk Split training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Hodak 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.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Marin Šotiček decided nobody was going anywhere. NK Varazdin had no time left to answer.
Hajduk Split asked and Slovan Bratislava 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: Lucko have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Dmytro Zudin. The answer from Hajduk Split has not changed — yet.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Marin Šotiček 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Marin Šotiček. 1‑0 against NK Varazdin, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Hajduk Split are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.