Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rene Prodanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 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: Vid Brekalo. 2‑0 against NK Krsko, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at ND Gorica, and 1 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
Two goals and a mark of 8.71 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Luka Baruca 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 Rene Prodanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 20 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around ND Gorica they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Rene Prodanović 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.
Half the programme played, position 6, 12 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
“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; ND Gorica are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
27 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ND Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica 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 Rene Prodanović 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ND Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Olimpija Ljubljana for Prosper Obiora Nwachukwu 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ND Gorica have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Deadline passes with 23 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at ND Gorica until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
4 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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at ND Gorica can tell you which week it ends in.
The words a physio says slowly. 44 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.
Luka Baruca 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 Cene Kitek 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.
Something was said to Ramiro Di Luciano and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The words a physio says slowly. 60 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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 shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. ND Gorica will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Francis Chinedu Echue is 18, and ND Gorica have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
74 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ND Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and NK Domzale waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cene Kitek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
ND Gorica asked and Altach said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The words a physio says slowly. 82 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.
Luka Baruca 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 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 23 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.
Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
In brief
Squad11 new faces, and ND Gorica are still learning each other
107 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ND Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Olimpija Ljubljana have accepted the money. What ND Gorica do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. ND Gorica have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 ND Gorica, and it is not being withdrawn.
The deal with Koper 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.
At 18 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rene Prodanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 114 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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around ND Gorica people have started saying his name in the past tense.
“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 ND Gorica, and it is not being withdrawn.
At 23 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 offer from NK Krka for Alen Jurca 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. ND Gorica have done the hard part with CSKA Moscow, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Rene Prodanović 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.
$52.0K was the most the club would pay and NK Krsko were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cene Kitek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and NK Krka waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The chase for Josip Perković ended with $260.0K changing hands and Rudar Velenje out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
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.
Alen Korošec 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 Rene Prodanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Luka Baruca 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.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rene Prodanović 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.
In brief
The dugoutLuka Baruca knocks on the manager’s door
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ND Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Rene Prodanović 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.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cene Kitek 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 ND Gorica 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Alen Korošec signs something — a contract at ND Gorica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 ND Gorica would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
7 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee ND Gorica could ask drops and the wages Danijel Zagorac can ask rise.
The words a physio says slowly. 48 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Cene Kitek 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at ND Gorica, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ND Gorica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
In brief
The dugoutMarko Čavara has become a man the manager trusts
The words a physio says slowly. 55 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Cene Kitek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The words a physio says slowly. 103 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rudar Velenje waiting with a shirt. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Rene Prodanović 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 Cene Kitek 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 Cene Kitek trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He is 24, he has been here since he was a boy, and the shirt he grew up expecting has been given to somebody flown in for it. That grievance belongs to the town as much as to the player.
110 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. ND Gorica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
ND Gorica close the window on a squad of their own making
5 in and 2 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and ND Gorica know which stage they are at.
Nobody at ND Gorica 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.
28 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Market1 Feb 2027
The window shut and Cene Kitek is still in the building
ND Gorica spent a month trying to move him and nobody rang back. He trains with a squad that has told him where he stands, and both sides start counting down to the next one.
Rene Prodanović 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.
Nobody at ND Gorica 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.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes Alen Korošec a promise
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Rob Rudonja 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Filip Pobi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
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.
Luka Baruca 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Danijel Zagorac, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Filip Pobi 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at ND Gorica pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
A brace, and Tim Matavž takes the afternoon — 9.30
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tim Matavž provided it, and the 9.30 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Marked 8.30 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Rob Rudonja 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 easiest signature of my career.” Taj Rožič Šuligoj and ND Gorica agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at ND Gorica can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at ND Gorica, another week without a signature from Michael Pavlović.
Dejan Suhovršnik 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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Lan Vidmar is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Robert Kampl was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the ND Gorica dressing room was either.
Nobody at ND Gorica is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Rene Prodanović 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Nura Salisu 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.
A 2‑0 win over Rudar Velenje, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Filip Pobi 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. ND Gorica told Tilen Vendramin something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Robert Kampl on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Rene Prodanović 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
Something was said to Lan Vidmar and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Robert Kampl to a room that had heard them before.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Anej Kobal 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.
7.83, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 2 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Nura Salisu is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anej Kobal was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Player ratingsLuka Baruca beats them one at a time