Marked for Timotej Kudlička
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartak Trnava may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Libor Holík 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Spartak Trnava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Khorkheli 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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“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 dugout16 Nov 2026
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Erik Sabo has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Erik Sabo has written the date down.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Martin Vantruba has seen what the next man earns
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 Spartak Trnava that is a harder question to answer.
Looking ahead16 Nov 2026
Next up at home: MFK Skalica, who go into it in position 6. The kind of fixture a season is quietly built on or quietly loses its shape in.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout12 Oct 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartak Trnava may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Samuel Ďatko 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 Spartak Trnava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Luka Khorkheli 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 dugout12 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Moistsrapishvili, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Spartak Trnava are still strangers to each other
11 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Player of the week, judged against every other man in the division. A small award, and one most careers never collect.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 Oct 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑0 against Spartak Myjava, and it could have been more.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.77 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Spartak Trnava can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Kristiyan Malinov 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Samuel Štefánik and Spartak Trnava agree another 1 years.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Spartak Trnava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Khorkheli 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 8.43 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.26 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 4‑0, Samuel Nemec could afford to be generous.