Marked for Marko Kunka
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Spartak Myjava's wait for a win
9 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Spartak Myjava has to find a result from somewhere.
Match31 Jul 2027
0‑3 to DAC Dunajska Streda, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Spartak Myjava and Slovan Bratislava have settled on $3.7M. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Market2 Aug 2027
Imrich Bedecs 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 Spartak Myjava can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Spartak Myjava may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match31 Jul 2027
5 matches without a goal for Spartak Myjava
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 5 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Spartak Myjava have done the hard part with Spartak Trnava, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Spartak Myjava asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match31 Jul 2027
Spartak Myjava are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match24 Jul 2027
A 0‑3 beating by MSK Zilina was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.
The terraces26 Jul 2027
The mood at Spartak Myjava 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.
Match24 Jul 2027
No end in sight to Spartak Myjava's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Spartak Myjava has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad26 Jul 2027
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
$1.8M settles it between the clubs for Roko Jureškin
Spartak Trnava have accepted the money. What Spartak Myjava do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
Market26 Jul 2027
“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 Spartak Myjava, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match24 Jul 2027
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Spartak Myjava can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Spartak Myjava asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
37 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
Libor Koníček 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 Spartak Myjava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Andrej Benes is 15, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Spartak Trnava have kept their man, and Spartak Myjava go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: AS Trencin keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The offer went to Slovan Bratislava this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
Squad5 Jul 2027
At 27 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Gadji Budunov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to AS Trencin: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Boardroom5 Jul 2027
Spartak Myjava sign 6 boys into the academy
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.