Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 118 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jablonec have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Geraldo Bajrami will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jablonec the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jan Chramosta 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 name of Matěj Čechal has come up in conversations Jablonec were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
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.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jablonec can tell you which week it ends in.
In brief
Player ratingsSaidou Alioum beats them one at a time
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.
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Kryvbas can tell you which week it ends in.
Denys Kuzyk 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.
Kryvbas asked and Epicentr 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 Aug 2027
Yvan Dibango 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 Kryvbas, and 2 appearances in 6 say he has earned the hearing.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jablonec they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Jablonec 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 Jablonec 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 Filip Novák was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
“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 Jablonec, and it is not being withdrawn.
The offer from Voluntari for Saidou Alioum 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Jablonec have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Slovacko have accepted the money. What Jablonec do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Viktoria Plzen have kept their man, and Jablonec go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Eduard Sobol 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 clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jablonec is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Geraldo Bajrami has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Sebastian Nebyla 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 May 2027
Words at Jablonec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nelson Okeke 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jablonec, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Jablonec know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Matej Malenšek 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jablonec is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Jan Chramosta 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Eduard Sobol 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 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 Jablonec know 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 Jablonec, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at Jablonec 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 standards have slipped, and in a building where everybody watches everybody it has not gone unremarked. This is how a player loses a place before he loses one.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Jablonec is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Jablonec training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nelson Okeke 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 captaincy has been taken off Vakhtang Chanturishvili. Jablonec will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Jablonec they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jan Chramosta 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 Eduard Sobol was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Jablonec, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of 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 Jablonec 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 Sebastian Nebyla was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samuel Lavrinčík commits to Jablonec for another 4 years.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Eduard Sobol 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Matej Darida 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.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ales Jankto 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout11 Jan 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 0‑1 Jiri Schick left the room before anybody could ask which.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Jan Chramosta 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Jablonec have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Eduard Sobol 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Benfica have kept their man, and Jablonec go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A point taken on 87 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
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 Filip Novák.