Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Patrik Horvat 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 Andrej Golub trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Something was said to Mateo Čupić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marko Novak-Stanko and Djakovo Croatia agree another 4 years.
Tin Ljubanović 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Zoran Lesjak 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.
Djakovo Croatia 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ivan Dominić has just signed for Djakovo Croatia, and for once the answer mattered.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Marko Novak-Stanko and Djakovo Croatia agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zoran Lesjak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Darijo Knezevic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Damir Srna is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ivan Modric has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Dino Vrsaljko 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.
Djakovo Croatia have made the call to HNK Gorica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Dinamo Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout3 Aug 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.” Ante Srna chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
It is a strip of cloth and it decides nothing on a Saturday. It still tells the dressing room exactly whose opinion the manager values, which is the whole point of it.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Josip Knežević leaves Djakovo Croatia the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Josip Tomašević leaves Djakovo Croatia the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.