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.
Aleš Mandous 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Albert Labík 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.
3 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Moscow have kept their man, and Pardubice go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The phone has started ringing about Denis Darmovzal again, and this time the name on the line is Prostějov. Pardubice are listening politely and promising nothing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Pardubice they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pardubice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Pardubice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Denis Darmovzal 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sparta Prague defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
In brief
The dugoutLadislav Krobot has become a man the manager trusts
Aleš Mandous and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Pardubice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Labík 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Christián Herc had Pardubice level again within 4 minutes, and Slovacko never got to play with a lead at all.
It needed Christián Herc to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Slovacko, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
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.” Ales Soucek chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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 Fivos Botos is on it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jáchym Šerák will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pardubice the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pardubice this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Albert Labík 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ales Soucek on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Zbrojovka Brno go through and Pardubice go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Tobias Boledovič, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.89
A mark of 7.89 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Aleš Mandous 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Albert Labík 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.
At 20 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Daniel Smékal. 1‑0 against Sigma Olomouc, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Pardubice will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pardubice will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Jáchym Šerák will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Pardubice the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Pardubice 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.
A 1‑0 win over Slovan Liberec, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Marked 7.37 on 10 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Ales Soucek on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Pardubice will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 22 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Samuel Kopásek 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
15 new faces, and Pardubice are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.43 on the card, and the Pardubice support went home talking about one name.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ales Soucek was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Pardubice dressing room was either.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Slovan Liberec in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Pardubice have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Samuel Kopásek is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Aleš Mandous 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Labík was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Viktoria Plzen next, and one man in the Pardubice dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Nobody at Pardubice 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.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pardubice will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Pardubice is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Michal Hlavatý 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ales Soucek after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Pardubice will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Michal Hlavatý 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 Sep 2026
Words at Pardubice training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Albert Labík 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.
15 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Ales Soucek after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Albert Labík has just signed for Pardubice, and for once the answer mattered.
“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 Pardubice, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from KFC Komárno for Mohammed Marzuq Yahaya was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The offer went to Banik Ostrava this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Aleš Mandous 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Hlavatý was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Still no offer on the table, and Daniel Smékal’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.