Marked for Ege Sahillioğlu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match21 Aug 2030
České Budějovice ended it 1‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Market26 Aug 2030
“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 The request is on a desk at Slavia Kroměříž, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad26 Aug 2030
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.
The dugout26 Aug 2030
This is not rotation. Lucas Beltrán has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Slavia Kroměříž is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Petr Plachý in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Kroměříž this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets26 Aug 2030
Slavia Kroměříž asked and Teplice said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Aug 2030
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Reiter 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 ratings26 Aug 2030
Emil Pisani ran the middle of the pitch — 6.24
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.24, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Squad26 Aug 2030
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Ege Sahillioğlu, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match11 Mar 2030
26 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market11 Mar 2030
Liam Abels hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Kroměříž can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Petr Plachý in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Kroměříž this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Reiter 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 dugout11 Mar 2030
Alex Mollo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Kroměříž, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout11 Mar 2030
“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.
Market11 Mar 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad11 Mar 2030
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Slavia Kroměříž will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Squad11 Mar 2030
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Slavia Kroměříž would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Dec 2029
Every point is an argument now for Slavia Kroměříž
Position 15 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Market17 Dec 2029
“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.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
Lukáš Toman: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Kroměříž have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Petr Plachý and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Dec 2029
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oliver Reiter 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.
Match15 Dec 2029
Zlin left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager makes an example of Ondřej Bleha
“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.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Pavel Coufal left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout17 Dec 2029
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Dec 2029
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 88th, and Teplice spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market10 Dec 2029
Lukáš Toman hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slavia Kroměříž can pretend not to have heard.
Match8 Dec 2029
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Teplice were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Squad10 Dec 2029
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.
The dugout10 Dec 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Petr Plachý in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Kroměříž this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces10 Dec 2029
At 22 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.
Match8 Dec 2029
Three points for Slavia Kroměříž, 1‑0 the final word against Teplice in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad10 Dec 2029
Olivér Balázs 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.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages eat 97% of everything Slavia Kroměříž earn
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Player ratings
Oliver Reiter takes the honours
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The dugout
The view from the dugout