It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad24 May 2027
Ibrahim Sabra 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dejan Knezevic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Marko Pajač will call it something else in private.
1 error, one goal, and a night in front of the same three seconds. He will see it tonight, tomorrow and probably in February, and everybody who has played knows exactly which frame he keeps stopping on.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
12 goals in 29 games at Hrvatski Dragovoljac — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“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 Lokomotiva Zagreb, and 0 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
The dugout10 May 2027
Luka Dajčer is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lokomotiva Zagreb. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
A few words of the language, a friend at the next peg, and a training ground that has stopped feeling foreign. Nothing measurable, and everything visible on Saturdays.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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 Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mirko Sušak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Marcel Lorber has written the date down.
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Thanasis Triantafyllou may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
14 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Lokomotiva Zagreb lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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.
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 Mirko Marić is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Lokomotiva Zagreb. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Sharpest man there all week, by every account. It is the quietest line on this page and it usually runs the week before somebody’s run in the side begins.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Petar Andrić’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Full confidence, expressed in the dull, deliberate language boards reserve for when they mean it. The window that follows will show whether the words came with money attached.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ibrahim Sabra did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Fran Karačić 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 Ibrahim Sabra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 21 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.
Successful dribbles: 15. 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.
The dugout5 Apr 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Dejan Knezevic kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Everybody at Lokomotiva Zagreb saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 40 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
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 Franjo Posavac is on 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiva Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Lokomotiva Zagreb the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiva Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Marko Vešović 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 had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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 Lokomotiva Zagreb, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb 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. Lokomotiva Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Lokomotiva Zagreb lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Ibrahim Sabra 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.
“I watch every Lokomotiva Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mirko Sušak trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout15 Mar 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Luka Dajčer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Mirko Marić is on it.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lokomotiva Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
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 Lokomotiva Zagreb have no good answer.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Vešović and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 0 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lokomotiva Zagreb, another week without a signature from Marcel Lorber.
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 Lokomotiva Zagreb would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb 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.
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 Lokomotiva Zagreb have no good answer.
Marko Vešović 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.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Marko Pajač 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.
“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 Lokomotiva Zagreb, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Aleksandar Trajkovski is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiva Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
3 goals in 27 games at Lucko — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiva Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
“I watch every Lokomotiva Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Cibalia runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout15 Feb 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Luka Dajčer's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
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 Mirko Marić is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakov-Anton Vasilj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Slaven Belupo are out and Lokomotiva Zagreb go through, 1‑1 the final word. The bracket opens up a little, and everyone allows themselves a look at it.
The offer from Dinamo Brest for Mirko Sušak 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Sabra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Wrexham have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I watch every Lokomotiva Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Uljanik Pula runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The phone has started ringing about David Virgili again, and this time the name on the line is Segesta. Lokomotiva Zagreb are listening politely and promising nothing.
0 in and 3 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.
Marko Vešović 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 had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Real Sociedad have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Lokomotiva Zagreb, and 0 appearances in 25 say he has earned the hearing.
12 goals in 24 games at Kustosija — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
32 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Jan Vertonghen 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.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Ibrahim Sabra 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.
11 goals in 22 games at Kustosija — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
7 goals in 22 games at Hrvatski Dragovoljac — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Lokomotiva Zagreb will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Lokomotiva Zagreb have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The offer from Dubrava for David Virgili 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
Marko Vešović 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Varazdin have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The name of Luka Savatović has come up in conversations Lokomotiva Zagreb were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I did not go to Dugo Selo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 21 matches say the rest.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ibrahim Sabra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marcel Lorber 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jakov-Anton Vasilj trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Lokomotiva Zagreb would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.33 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Sabra 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jan Vertonghen and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 2 years.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Mirko Sušak.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Dejan Knezevic, on a 2‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ibrahim Sabra 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 fixture the rest of the division is looking forward to more than either of the sides in it. Both know a win changes the season and a defeat does not end it, which is what makes it hard to play.
“I did not go to Uljanik Pula to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 14 matches say the rest.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fran Karačić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lokomotiva Zagreb needing him to play as if none of it matters.
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 Franjo Posavac is on it.
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Lokomotiva Zagreb that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
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.
Marko Vešović 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 had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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.
10 combined actions and 6.89. 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.
“I did not go to Dugo Selo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
The dugout9 Nov 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.” Dejan Knezevic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Oliver Heiðarsson. 3‑1 against Dinamo Zagreb, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ibrahim Sabra 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.
Two sides from the top of the table, one afternoon, and a month of talk decided in ninety minutes. Lokomotiva Zagreb will not use the word title this week and will not stop thinking it.
8.13. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marcel Lorber 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“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.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.