“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Hellas Verona have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Hellas Verona, another week without a signature from Cheikh Niasse.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Amin Sarr signs something — a contract at Hellas Verona or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Genoa next, and one man in the Hellas Verona dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Hellas Verona have no good answer.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Isaac trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Hellas Verona asked and AS Roma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Hellas Verona will not keep him by pretending otherwise.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Josep Martínez trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Hellas Verona would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nobody at Hellas Verona 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.
Nobody at Istra 1961 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istra 1961 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Istra 1961 have no good answer.
Position 6 on 21 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Guus Beaumont trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Filip Taraba 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 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 Istra 1961, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Istra 1961 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.
Position 6 on 21 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Istra 1961 the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
In brief
SquadJosip Radošević is training like a man with a point to make
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Istra 1961 know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Filip Taraba 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.
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 6, 21 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Istra 1961, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Istra 1961 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miro was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Filip Taraba 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.
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.
Market8 Mar 2027
Petar Nemet returns from a loan that taught him nothing
1 appearances and 0 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Istra 1961 argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“I did not go to Mladost Zdralovi to sit and watch. I want to come back to Istra 1961 and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 27 matches say the rest.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Silvio Goričan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Isaac is on it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Istra 1961 has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Djakovo Croatia waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Istra 1961 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
At 20 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.
The fee is $160.0K, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Lokomotiva Zagreb drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Karlovac 1919 will make the call about Franko Kolić this week. Istra 1961 have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Words at Istra 1961 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Rozić 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.
Istra 1961 asked and Jarun Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Filip Taraba 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Istra 1961 has been clear about where Antonio Maurić stands, which is more than many ever get.
“I watch every Istra 1961 game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Varteks runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hellas Verona this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
The dugout28 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.” Flavio Antonucci chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
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.
“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 Hellas Verona, and it is not being withdrawn.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Hellas Verona can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Antoine Bernede. 2‑0 against Catanzaro, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Flavio Antonucci on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Hellas Verona told Dailon Livramento something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
6 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
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 Julius Biada is on it.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Stefan Mitrović’s exile
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Istra 1961 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2‑2 against PSV, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Isaac was at the centre of the description.
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Isaac will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Istra 1961 escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Istra 1961 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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 Vinko Rozić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Gabriele Zappa 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.
Nobody at Hellas Verona 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.
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Hellas Verona will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Julius Biada has written the date down.
2 goals in 9 games at Istra 1961 — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Hellas Verona updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The language has come, the shrug has gone, and he argues in training like a man who expects to be here next year. None of it shows up on a fee and all of it shows up on the pitch.
They sit in position 5 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
At 20 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.
7 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hajduk Split were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Mohamed Nasraoui 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Istra 1961 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Rozić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Isaac 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Isaac. 1‑0 against Hajduk Split, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
10 combined actions and 6.83. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Position 4, 15 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
90 minutes played. Isaac found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Dinamo Zagreb went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. HNK Rijeka have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istra 1961 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vinko Rozić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 23 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 name of Dominik Celija has come up in conversations Istra 1961 were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.