Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Pedro 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radnik Surdulica told Stefan Džodić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Radnik Surdulica has been clear about where Yang Fan stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Novi Pazar in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
1‑1 against MTK Budapest, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Position 3, 19 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefan Vidaković 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. João Pedro 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.
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 Haris Hajdarević.
“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 The request is on a desk at Radnik Surdulica, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Radnik Surdulica will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stefan Ilić has just signed for Radnik Surdulica, and for once the answer mattered.
Vukašin Bogdanović 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. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Zorić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Vukašin Bogdanović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Radnik Surdulica needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Radnik Surdulica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
This is not rotation. Luka Zorić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending otherwise.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 14 signed and 12 gone
That is the business done at Radnik Surdulica 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.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Luka Drobnjak. 1‑0 against Cukaricki, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“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 Radnik Surdulica know it.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Radnik Surdulica will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Add another name to the list: Trayal Kruševac have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ayouba Kosiah. The answer from Radnik Surdulica has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Radnik Surdulica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Trayal Kruševac waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
Radnik Surdulica asked and Trayal Kruševac said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefan Vidaković 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sadick Abubakar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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 Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stefan Ranđelović and Radnik Surdulica agree another 4 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Radnik Surdulica asked and Besiktas said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A 1‑0 win over Zeleznicar Pancevo, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“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 Radnik Surdulica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sadick Abubakar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Stefan Vidaković is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Radnik Surdulica know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Radnicki 1923 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
The deal with Partizan 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Panathinaikos have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sadick Abubakar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Georgie Jenkins and Radnik Surdulica agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Smederevo 1924 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Vukašin Bogdanović 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Radnik Surdulica has been clear about where Stefan Ilić stands, which is more than many ever get.
Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radnik Surdulica have done the hard part with Crvena Zvezda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Ayouba Kosiah has come up in conversations Radnik Surdulica were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Stefan Vidaković and Radnik Surdulica agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olympiacos have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Stefan Vidaković is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Dejan Đurić 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 Blendi Idrizi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Loan watch1 May 2028
Máté Deczki’s loan is measured in nothing happening
13 clean sheets from 21 appearances at Diosgyor. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Mezőkövesd, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Mezőkövesd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Maksymilian Sznaucner is living that version at Mezőkövesd, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Mezőkövesd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blendi Idrizi 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad20 Mar 2028
7 new faces, and Mezőkövesd 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.
Maksymilian Sznaucner signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Mattia Attinasi arrives at Mezőkövesd with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.
In brief
The dugoutPéter Zachán asks for a word with the manager
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ahmed Hadžimujović 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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Radnik Surdulica would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Position 6 on 41 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Two goals and a mark of 8.57 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Dejan Đurić 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.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Words at Mezőkövesd training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Blendi Idrizi 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 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Mezőkövesd told Stefan Vidaković something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Dejan Đurić 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.
Level with 85 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Mezőkövesd had all but put away. Kecskeméti TE will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Gergő Csatári’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Mezőkövesd needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mezőkövesd know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Nobody at Mezőkövesd 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.
“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 Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dejan Đurić 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.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Blendi Idrizi 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Mezőkövesd have done the hard part with Radnik Surdulica, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Blendi Idrizi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ryonosuke Ohori, and the manager let it.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
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.” Szabolcs Szoboszlai 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.
“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 Mezőkövesd, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Mezőkövesd will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
7.73, 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.
Mezőkövesd asked and NK Osijek said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Loan watch3 Jan 2028
Máté Deczki’s loan is measured in nothing happening
12 clean sheets from 20 appearances at Diosgyor. That is the whole of a goalkeeper’s job done properly, and it is being done a long way from the club that owns him.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Luka Savić knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
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 have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
The offer from Bjelovar for Stefan Vidaković 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.
Oskar Wójcik 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. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Oskar Wójcik 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 happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
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. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
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.” Strahinja Ilic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; 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 Stefan Vidaković is on it.
OFK Beograd next, and one man in the Radnik Surdulica dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
In brief
The dugoutRafael Pontelo asks for a word with the manager
Oskar Wójcik 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 Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.12. 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.
Minute 86, against Dubočica, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as 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 Radnik Surdulica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.64 for the rest of 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 Radnik Surdulica 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.
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
The dugout1 Nov 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.” Strahinja Ilic kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Radnik Surdulica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Vukašin Bogdanović 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. Sandro Trémoulet 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 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.
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Oskar Wójcik 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 Darije Markočević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Milos Dragićević is 20, and Radnik Surdulica 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.
6 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.
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.
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.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Radnik Surdulica will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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 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 Radnik Surdulica know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Strahinja Ilic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Ranđelović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Oskar Wójcik 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
10 seasons and 167 appearances, all of them here. Careers like this are not designed; they happen to a certain kind of man at a certain kind of club, and this town has one.
The offer from Novi Pazar for Darije Markočević 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Radnik Surdulica close the window on a squad of their own making
13 in and 17 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 Radnik Surdulica 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 Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout23 Aug 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Strahinja Ilic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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 used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Cukaricki in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Radnik Surdulica asked and IMT 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 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.
Piotr Rogala 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Stefan Ranđelović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“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 Radnik Surdulica, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Novi Pazar for Darije Markočević 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 now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
Piotr Rogala 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 dugout9 Aug 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Strahinja Ilic to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Nail Omerović is in the works
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Darije Markočević again, and this time the name on the line is Novi Pazar. Radnik Surdulica are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Trémoulet 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. Catania have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Radnik Surdulica know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
Everything agreed with Werder Bremen, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Dynamo Kyiv is saying, and nobody at Radnik Surdulica is enjoying the guessing.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vukašin Bogdanović and Radnik Surdulica agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Levski have kept their man, and Radnik Surdulica 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 Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Trayal Kruševac had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
“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 Radnik Surdulica, and it is not being withdrawn.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Radnik Surdulica have done the hard part with Crvena Zvezda, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Radnik Surdulica asked and La Equidad 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Luka Puzović 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miloš Popović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Radnik Surdulica the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radnik Surdulica can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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 Stefan Ranđelović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
Savo Rašković 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 Radnik Surdulica 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.
4 goals in 23 games at Grafičar — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Radnik Surdulica updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Radnik Surdulica. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Radnik Surdulica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
5 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.
Not a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Lazar Stojanović has moved up 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.
In brief
The dugoutIlias Hafidi knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yang Fan was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Ayouba Kosiah is on it.
What was a back-page story is now a matter for the terraces, and the terraces do not do nuance. Radnik Surdulica would like it dealt with before it becomes the only question anybody asks.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Stefan Ranđelović signs something — a contract at Radnik Surdulica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Radnik Surdulica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Radnik Surdulica that is a harder question to answer.
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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Miloš Popović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Radnik Surdulica the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Vukašin Bogdanović 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 have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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 Sandro Trémoulet was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at Radnik Surdulica 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 is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radnik Surdulica told Borko Duronjić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
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 Radnik Surdulica would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Danijel Zagorac 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 club pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time it has been tried.
It needed Stefan Vidaković to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Hrvatski Dragovoljac, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
Nobody at Mladost Zdralovi 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.
Uskok next, and one man in the Mladost Zdralovi dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Mihael Mladen signs something — a contract at Mladost Zdralovi or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Mladost Zdralovi. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Two goals and a mark of 8.54 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Mihael Mladen 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.
Successful dribbles: 20. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Đurak 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.
At 21 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.
Mladost Zdralovi close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 0 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.
Danijel Zagorac 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.
Rudes will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Luka Popović has pre-agreed a move to Mladost Zdralovi, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Central Espanol have kept their man, and Mladost Zdralovi go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lucas Fernandes. 1‑0 against Grobnican, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Danijel Zagorac 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.
Mladost Zdralovi asked and Central Espanol said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad4 Jan 2027
David Đurak 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 not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Mladost Zdralovi are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
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.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Stefan Vidaković is in the works
Transfer targetsA loan move for Benjamin Dulčić is in the works
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
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. Radnik Surdulica will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.03 at 36, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Radnik Surdulica asked and PAOK said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Radnik Surdulica can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Sandro Trémoulet 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Strahinja Ilic was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Radnik Surdulica dressing room was either.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Radnik Surdulica told Borko Duronjić something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Napredak? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.