Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
Franko Bosančić 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.
Boardroom21 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Kustosija 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kustosija know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
A new face in his position and a shirt he thought he owned suddenly up for discussion. Kustosija have promised nothing, which is what clubs promise at this stage.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Tomislav Krizmanić 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Milan Berenschot and Kustosija agree another 4 years.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Frankie Hvid 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Kustosija would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Kustosija, and both men came out saying it was fine.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Noel Đurković is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Tijan Vasić 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.
11 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Kustosija told Tijan Vasić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac next, and one man in the Kustosija dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Markanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The deal with Kustosija 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.
Vanja Vukmanović 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.
Signings arrive with a picture of the club in their head, and this one’s picture was bigger than the building. He will play well and he will be gone, in that order, and everybody knows it.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Uskok will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Uskok know which stage they are at.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Uskok, another week without a signature from Bruno Grgić.
Everything agreed with Olimpija Ljubljana, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Kustosija had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Matija Kolarić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Junior Bita 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.
The name of Junior Bita has come up in conversations Kustosija were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Bruno Grgić has, at Uskok, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Some transfers need a press campaign. This one needed a shirt with the old number on it. Jerko Bralić-Labinčić is a Uskok player again, and the town has its story of the summer.
Uskok asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Andro Marušić 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.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Damir Orsic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Robert Boric has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Damir Boric has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.