Marked for Stefan Nikolić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match5 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Radnicki Nis
Position 15 and 5 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
6 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Stefan Purtić 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 dugout5 Oct 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Gboly Ariyibi has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
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 Dušan Jovanović is on it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Uroš Vitas watches a signing take the shirt he was promised
At 34 the pathway was supposed to be open. Instead Radnicki Nis went to the market, and a local readership is asking the question the academy staff are too diplomatic to ask out loud.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Milijan Ilić dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match26 Sep 2026
5 matches without a win for Radnicki Nis
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Radnicki Nis are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnicki Nis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout28 Sep 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
8 new faces, and Radnicki Nis are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad28 Sep 2026
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Radnicki Nis will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad14 Sep 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dušan Jovanović and Radnicki Nis agree another 4 years.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ibrahim Mustapha, and the manager let it.
Match12 Sep 2026
The goal that put Zeleznicar Pancevo ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Radnicki Nis equalised, 2 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.84, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Match12 Sep 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
IMT next, and one man in the Radnicki Nis dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer from Vojvodina for Stefan Nikolić 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.
Market17 Aug 2026
“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.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $68.2K — a club that wants Anes Rušević enough to be asked twice.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Issah Abass beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$63.0K on the table at Novi Pazar. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Radnicki Nis have gone to Radnik Surdulica with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Stefan Purtić 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Radnicki 1923 left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.