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 Viktoria Žižkov have had the benefit of it.
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.
Martin Janáček 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Václav Jindra has just signed for Viktoria Žižkov, and for once the answer mattered.
At 34, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Banik Ostrava have kept their man, and Viktoria Žižkov go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A brace, and Adam Toula takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Adam Toula provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Adam Toula. 3‑2 against Sparta Prague B, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ondřej Kričfaluši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Adam Schick kept it short after the 3‑2 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Josef Divíšek
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.
One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.84, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josef Divíšek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Level with 95 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Viktoria Žižkov had all but put away. Pribram will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
It needed Štěpán Šebrle to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Pribram, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Adam Schick was not hiding it after 2‑2, and nobody in the Viktoria Žižkov dressing room was either.
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
In brief
The dugoutElmedin Rama has become a man the manager trusts
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ondřej Kričfaluši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Josef Divíšek 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.
Dealt with internally, which is the phrase a club uses when it would rather nobody asked twice. He will be fined, he will apologise, and he will play on Saturday.
The goal that put Jihlava ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Viktoria Žižkov equalised, 4 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Žižkov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ondřej Kričfaluši 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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 24 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josef Divíšek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Josef Divíšek
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.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Chrudim in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martin Janáček signs something — a contract at Viktoria Žižkov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Viktoria Žižkov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Viktoria Žižkov told Josef Divíšek something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Petr Jaroň trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Vlašim made Viktoria Žižkov work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Josef Divíšek 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.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Adam Schick, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Viktoria Žižkov told Marek Mach something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Adam Schick was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Viktoria Žižkov dressing room was either.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Petr Plachý
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Vlašim in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Martin Janáček signs something — a contract at Viktoria Žižkov or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
0‑3 against Zbrojovka Brno, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Viktoria Žižkov is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ondřej Kričfaluši was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
A brace, and Štěpán Šebrle takes the afternoon — 8.86
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Štěpán Šebrle provided it, and the 8.86 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
7.71, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Josef Divíšek 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.
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 89. Táborsko had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
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. Viktoria Žižkov will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 3‑3, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.66 for the rest of it.
Martin Janáček 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 paperwork is done long before the player is. Emir Karalić has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Viktoria Žižkov have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
A 2‑0 win over Sparta Prague B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Viktoria Žižkov know which stage they are at.
15 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.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Pribram the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Viktoria Žižkov will enjoy reviewing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Farul Constanța keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Petr Jaroň and Viktoria Žižkov agree another 4 years.
Viktoria Žižkov asked and Zbrojovka Brno said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
At 23 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.