Marked for Max Howells
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Martin Vrdoljak
45 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dugo Selo lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Aug 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Max Howells obliged against Grobnican. 1‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Dugo Selo.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Dugo Selo, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
A brace, and Josip Palić takes the afternoon — 8.39
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Josip Palić provided it, and the 8.39 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Dugo Selo have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Player ratings30 Aug 2027
Filip Musa beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 21. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Dugo Selo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dino Kapitanović 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.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Osijek have kept their man, and Dugo Selo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
He is 22 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 May 2027
Miroslav Koprić damages knee ligaments — 134 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 134 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.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The scrutiny sharpens at Dugo Selo
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Dugo Selo is running low.
Squad24 May 2027
Gentrit Salihu and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 May 2027
Luka Romac 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.
The dugout24 May 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Čondrić, and the manager let it.
Squad24 May 2027
“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; Dugo Selo are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom24 May 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Dugo Selo now.
The dugout24 May 2027
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dugo Selo, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout24 May 2027
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.
In brief
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Match
Nothing left to play for but pride at Dugo Selo
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The dugout
The manager plants his flag on Max Howells
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match16 Jan 2027
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 12 matches without defeat is a foundation Dugo Selo did not have in the autumn.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at Dugo Selo is enjoying the guessing.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dugo Selo this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Max Howells arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Max Howells has, at Dugo Selo, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Dugo Selo training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Romac 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 ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
“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.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.52 on the card, and the Dugo Selo support went home talking about one name.