Marked for John Mercado
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jaime Mata and Sparta Prague agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
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.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
7.88, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Sparta Prague had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Matěj Ryneš dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Squad14 Sep 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Sparta Prague have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
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From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 44. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match5 Sep 2026
7 matches without a win for Sparta Prague
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Sparta Prague are no longer polite ones.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Kevin Cuesta gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Kevin Cuesta has just signed for Sparta Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
Market7 Sep 2026
The bid was some way short and Sparta Prague did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Jaime Mata 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.
Market7 Sep 2026
Nobody at the club will say out loud who this signing is for, which is how you know exactly who it is for. Kevin Cuesta has been brought in to take a shirt somebody is still wearing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Sparta Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Sonne 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.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
The afternoon belonged to Andy Irving
7.33, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Sparta Prague had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
Match5 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Pribram defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match29 Aug 2026
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Market31 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Íñigo Martínez 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.
Market31 Aug 2026
Adana Demirspor are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sparta Prague will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad31 Aug 2026
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 50. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Urawa Reds for Asger Sørensen 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
Albion Rrahmani has left for PAOK in a $7.1M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
Sparta Prague sell a favourite for $7.1M
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Albion Rrahmani was one of the reasons people came, and $7.1M does not replace that by itself.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Íñigo Martínez 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Market17 Aug 2026
Sigma Olomouc are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Sparta Prague will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.05 on the card, and the Sparta Prague support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 40. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Sparta Prague heard it as anything else.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Íñigo Martínez 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Andy Irving and Sparta Prague agree another 4 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Jihlava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Adam Ševínský. The answer from Sparta Prague has not changed — yet.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Oliver Sonne 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Sparta Prague know it, and so does everybody who watches him.