145 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Varteks lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Varteks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Add another name to the list: HNK Rijeka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Marius Poncel. The answer from Varteks has not changed — yet.
“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.
Boardroom5 Aug 2030
An order from above at Varteks: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
The deal with Dinamo Zagreb is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
The target is Oliver Rufer, the approach is real, and the compensation clause is the whole conversation. Clubs deny this kind of story right up until the photograph.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cibalia is saying, and nobody at Varteks is enjoying the guessing.
Antonio Klarić-Kukuz 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.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
The mood at Varteks 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.
Everything agreed with Lokomotiva Zagreb, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Cibalia is saying, and nobody at Varteks is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Osijek have kept their man, and Varteks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Diego Häle trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Varteks had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Hajduk Split, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Antonio Klarić-Kukuz 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.
At 36, 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernardo Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $10.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
Varteks have made the call to Hajduk Split. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
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.
Hajduk Split have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
A loan enquiry to HNK Vukovar 1991: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks 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 Varteks 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Klarić-Kukuz 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 May 2030
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Vereguţ 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.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
Antonio Klarić-Kukuz 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.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hamza Martinović 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.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Varteks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
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.
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Dmytro Makotiak is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Varteks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ianis Vencu signs something — a contract at Varteks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 14 and 29 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Marius Poncel, and the manager let it.
Squad18 Mar 2030
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernardo Rodrigues 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.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $10.1M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Varteks told Piotr Holcel something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Varteks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
SquadThe training reports on Dmytro Ievchev are not good
Daniel Vereguţ 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.
Squad11 Mar 2030
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Răzvan Barstan 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.
Nobody at Varteks will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Varteks has been clear about where José Roxo stands, which is more than many ever get.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Ianis Vencu signs something — a contract at Varteks or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Varteks would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
Piotr Holcel 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.
Varteks ran out of time with NK Varazdin. The paperwork was open when the deadline passed, and a transfer that was almost done is now a transfer that never happened.
Past the limit the bank set, which is the line between a club being financed and a club being in trouble. $10.0M is now the number every conversation about this club will start with.
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 has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
The shortfall was covered from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be relieved and entitled to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings usually arrive together.
At 38, 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.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sime Tadic 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Varteks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The gap in the accounts was filled from upstairs again. Supporters are entitled to be grateful and to ask what happens the month it is not, and both feelings arrive together.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ianis Vencu has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernardo Rodrigues 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Varteks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Antonio Klarić-Kukuz 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 manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sime Tadic 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.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The new man at Varteks has worked with Mihael Bodetić before and it went well. He arrives with a view of the player already formed, which is worth more than any pre-season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sime Tadic was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Daniel Vereguţ has his answer from Varteks; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
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.
Position 16 and 24 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.
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. Varteks told Jackson Izquierdo something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The embargo bars a fee being paid for a player, whatever the manager thinks the squad needs. Every rumour printed about this club between now and its lifting is a rumour about a deal that cannot happen.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernardo Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 35 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Vereguţ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihael Bodetić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Mihael Bodetić’s negotiating for him
SquadQuestions about Patryk Marek on the training pitch
Position 16 and 24 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.
“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 Varteks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Piotr Holcel and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad23 Apr 2029
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bernardo Rodrigues 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.
4 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Varteks could ask drops and the wages Marino Kukoč can ask rise.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Varteks. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Varteks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Mihael Bodetić 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.
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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Varteks, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Position 16 and 24 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Daniel Vereguţ was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lukas Buić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Varteks could ask drops and the wages Marino Kukoč can ask rise.
“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 Varteks will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernardo Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mihael Bodetić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Patryk Marek has his answer from Varteks; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Varteks the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
21 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at Varteks is enjoying the guessing.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hajduk Split have kept their man, and Varteks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Varteks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Marin Srna chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
17 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Karlovac 1919, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dinamo Zagreb is saying, and nobody at Varteks is enjoying the guessing.
4 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.
Piotr Holcel 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.
“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 Varteks, and it is not being withdrawn.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Varteks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The manager may talk to whoever he likes and may pay nobody. A squad survives a window like this by borrowing, by promoting, and by hoping the injuries land somewhere else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernardo Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Football clubs borrow; that is not the story. Borrowing more than the facility allows is, because from here it is the owner's money or somebody else's decision, and neither of those belongs to the board.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Varteks can pretend not to have heard.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Varteks have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Varteks can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Varteks told Caio Cruz something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bernardo Rodrigues was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then Hrvatski Dragovoljac scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Varteks are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mihael Bodetić, and the manager let it.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Makotiak 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 dugout25 Sep 2028
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Marin Srna to a room that had heard them before.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Bjelovar have kept their man, and Varteks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Words at Varteks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmytro Makotiak 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Varteks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 12. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
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.