Marked for Ante Sušak
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market16 Jul 2029
Ivor Ribar hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Rudes can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Ante Sušak is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Hajduk Split is saying, and nobody at Rudes is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
Rudes asked and HNK Gorica said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Jul 2029
A falling-out at Rudes
Karlo Kralj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Jul 2029
Words at Rudes training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vedran Celjak 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.
Squad16 Jul 2029
At 31 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Transfer targets16 Jul 2029
A loan move for Vasilije Kostov is in the works
Rudes have made the call to Crvena Zvezda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Market16 Jul 2029
Ivan Žutić runs his contract down
1 months remain and no agreement is close. Every week without a signature costs Rudes money.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market9 Jul 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market9 Jul 2029
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Rudes people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Squad9 Jul 2029
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.
Market9 Jul 2029
Only the photograph left for Luka Bilandžić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Bilandžić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rudes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
The paperwork begins on Mody Boune
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Rudes have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets9 Jul 2029
Rudes asked and Dinamo Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Tempers go at Rudes
Vedran Celjak 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.
Squad9 Jul 2029
Late improvement for Ivor Ribar
At 26 the improving is meant to be over, and it is not: 3 points better than a year ago. It happens to the ones who take the boring parts seriously.
Squad9 Jul 2029
A row about effort at Rudes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ante Sušak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market26 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Luka Bilandžić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Luka Bilandžić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rudes the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Rudes
Vedran Celjak and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Mar 2029
A row about effort at Rudes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Unušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Ivan Žutić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ivan Žutić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Noa Bilić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Rudes 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.
Market26 Mar 2029
The shop window has Frane Barbić in it
Rudes have let the market know Frane Barbić can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Market26 Mar 2029
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Rudes know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Squad26 Mar 2029
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad2 Oct 2028
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Rudes lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match30 Sep 2028
11 matches without a win for Rudes
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Rudes are no longer polite ones.
Match30 Sep 2028
Rudes taken apart
0‑3 to HNK Gorica, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market2 Oct 2028
Chanse Headman has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rudes they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad2 Oct 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vedran Celjak commits to Rudes for another 2 years.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Tempers go at Rudes
Adiele Eriugo 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.
Squad2 Oct 2028
A row about effort at Rudes
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vedran Celjak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
Inquest at Rudes
The manager kept them in and said what needed saying. A response is expected on Saturday, and if it does not come the questions move upstairs.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
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 0‑3 defeat, delivered by Boris Boric to a room that had heard them before.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Aug 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Felipe Curcio
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rudes lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market21 Aug 2028
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and HNK Vukovar 1991 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Rudes is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad21 Aug 2028
A fracture rules Luka Srna out for 27 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Rudes will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad21 Aug 2028
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
$40.0K settles it between the clubs for Petar Nemet
Istra 1961 have accepted the money. What Rudes do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market21 Aug 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Transfer targets21 Aug 2028
The deal with HNK Rijeka died in the treatment room. Nobody will say what was found and everybody in the game will find out by Friday.
Match19 Aug 2028
The wait goes on for Rudes
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Ante Sušak is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Jul 2028
Felipe Curcio damages knee ligaments — 92 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 92 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.
Match22 Jul 2028
Nowhere to hide for Rudes
0‑4 against NK Osijek, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Squad24 Jul 2028
A one-man rearguard from Karlo Kralj
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Ante Sušak is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Market24 Jul 2028
The bid was some way short and Rudes did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad24 Jul 2028
Karlo Kralj in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Rudes this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom24 Jul 2028
5 academy graduates step up at Rudes
Senior shirt numbers handed to boys the coaches have known since they were twelve. Most will not make it and all of them have already done the hard part.
Transfer targets24 Jul 2028
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Market24 Jul 2028
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dario Livaja has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.