Marked for David Látal
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.48 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Sampson Dweh 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Viktoria Plzen did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alexandr Sojka pulls a muscle — 14 days out
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Denis Vavro 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Slovacko made Viktoria Plzen work for it, but the scoreboard read 3‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Mohamed Touré and Viktoria Plzen agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Loan watch9 Nov 2026
“I watch every Viktoria Plzen game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Aalesund runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Oct 2026
A 3‑1 win over Opava, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match2 Nov 2026
Position 2 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.27, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market2 Nov 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 Viktoria Plzen heard it as anything else.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Viktoria Plzen did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Amar Memić 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Jan Paluska and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
The crowd has taken to David Látal
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dávid Krčík, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
Denis Vavro and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Alexandr Sojka’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Viktoria Plzen.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dávid Krčík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
7.63, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Viktoria Plzen had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout28 Sep 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.” David Provod kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of David Látal
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Market28 Sep 2026
The Sampson Dweh story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sampson Dweh signs something — a contract at Viktoria Plzen or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Looking ahead28 Sep 2026
Jablonec next, and one man in the Viktoria Plzen dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market7 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market7 Sep 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Kecskeméti TE had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
He is going to Slavia Prague, the club has $3.0M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Market7 Sep 2026
Slavia Prague pay $3.0M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 9 gone
That is the business done at Viktoria Plzen 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Amar Memić 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Viktoria Plzen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Vavro 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovacko have kept their man, and Viktoria Plzen go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.87, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market10 Aug 2026
Michal Kohút has left for Slovacko in a $1.8M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Patrick Kpozo has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Martin Jedlička and Banik Ostrava agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market10 Aug 2026
Business is business: David Látal goes
Viktoria Plzen paid $770.0K and Banik Ostrava took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Sacha Komljenović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match8 Aug 2026
Three points for Banik Ostrava, 2‑1 the final word against Teplice in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout10 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Jiří Boula
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market10 Aug 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Viktoria Plzen have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
A brace, and Matěj Vydra takes the afternoon — 9.21
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Matěj Vydra provided it, and the 9.21 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Lukáš Červ pops up at the right end — 7.76
7.76, 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.
Market10 Aug 2026
Denis Vavro wants to know where this is going
“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 Viktoria Plzen hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Market10 Aug 2026
The paperwork is done: David Látal joins from Banik Ostrava in a deal worth $770.0K. Now comes the harder part.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Viktoria Plzen have gone to Teplice 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.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
$1.1M was the most the club would pay and Sigma Olomouc were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.