Marked for Eugen Ciban
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Sep 2031
Nowhere to hide for Zadar
0‑3 against HNK Gorica, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Match15 Sep 2031
Every point is an argument now for Zadar
Position 8 and 8 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad15 Sep 2031
A one-man rearguard from Marko Galić
There were 7 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad15 Sep 2031
Tempers go at Zadar
Kristijan Bilic 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.
Squad15 Sep 2031
“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.
Boardroom15 Sep 2031
Doors closed at Zadar
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
4.12 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Player ratings15 Sep 2031
A mark of 5.22 tells the story without any need for embellishment. He will want the tape of this one quietly lost.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market21 Jul 2031
“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 The request is on a desk at Zadar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Tempers go at Zadar
Ivan Barić 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Ivan Barić has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom21 Jul 2031
Graduation day at Zadar
14 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Market21 Jul 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Sime Vukas 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.
Market21 Jul 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Antonio Perisic 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.
Market21 Jul 2031
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Andrej Simunovic 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.
Squad21 Jul 2031
Manu Wales 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.
Boardroom21 Jul 2031
A promise the Zadar board did not keep
There was a commitment, there was a date, and the date went past. Trust at a football club takes years to build and one afternoon to spend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match30 Jun 2031
Every point is an argument now for Zadar
Position 9 and 12 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The terraces30 Jun 2031
The mood at Zadar has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Boardroom30 Jun 2031
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zadar
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad30 Jun 2031
Manu Wales 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Jun 2031
When it matters, Dino Perić plays
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.
Market30 Jun 2031
Zadar have made Lovro Stanić available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad23 Jun 2031
Ivan Barić 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 Zadar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad23 Jun 2031
The medical room confirms 31 days on the sidelines for Bruno Barisic, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad23 Jun 2031
Roko Kurtović 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Mar 2031
A fracture rules Bojan Ivanovic out for 72 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Zadar will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match10 Mar 2031
Zadar sink to position 9
12 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market10 Mar 2031
Andrej Bogdan 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 Zadar can pretend not to have heard.