The words a physio says slowly. 148 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.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dukla Prague is running low.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
Jakub Kadák 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.
Squad20 Feb 2040
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zlatan Šehović 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.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Dukla Prague told Artúr Musák something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Dukla Prague can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
The terraces6 Feb 2040
The mood at Dukla Prague has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
The deal that would have taken Tomáš Jedlička to Jablonec has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Dukla Prague with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Jakub Kadák 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 words a physio says slowly. 83 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.
“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 Dukla Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 90 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.
Boardroom23 Jan 2040
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Dukla Prague
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dukla Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dukla Prague can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jan 2040
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tidjane Traoré 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. 104 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.
Jakub Kadák 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.
Squad9 Jan 2040
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zlatan Šehović 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. 111 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.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Filip Provod has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dukla Prague can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
119 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jakub Kadák 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.
Squad26 Dec 2039
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tidjane Traoré 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 manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
Boardroom26 Dec 2039
98% of the income goes out in wages at Dukla Prague
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
50 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague 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. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dukla Prague is running low.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
0‑3 to Mlada Boleslav, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Jakub Kadák 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.
Squad26 Sep 2039
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zlatan Šehović 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.
Boardroom26 Sep 2039
Nobody left the Dukla Prague dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
96 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dukla Prague will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
103 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 9 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dukla Prague have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Dukla Prague they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Jan Kozojed 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.
Jakub Kadák 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.
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Jakub Kadák 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 words a physio says slowly. 63 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.
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces21 Feb 2039
The mood at Dukla Prague has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Jakub Kadák 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.
Squad21 Feb 2039
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tidjane Traoré 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. 70 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.
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.87 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 Dukla Prague 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.
19 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
120 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces27 Dec 2038
The mood at Dukla Prague has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dukla Prague is running low.
Jakub Kadák 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.
Squad27 Dec 2038
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zlatan Šehović 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.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dukla Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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 Dukla Prague can pretend not to have heard.
498 appearances across 12 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
52 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Dukla Prague can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Player ratings8 Nov 2038
A brace, and David Lášek takes the afternoon — 8.32
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. David Lášek provided it, and the 8.32 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Bohemians 1905 left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Boardroom8 Nov 2038
107% of the income goes out in wages at Dukla Prague
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Dukla Prague, another week without a signature from Tomáš Jedlička.