There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Filip Laškaj 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.
Robert Ćosić 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.
Mario Babić 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.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 99 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Marcos Gómez did not need any: 8.04, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The deal that would have taken Josip Šoljić to Zadar has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Lucko with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lucko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Marcos Gómez had Lucko level again within 3 minutes, and Hrvatski Dragovoljac never got to play with a lead at all.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Lucko, another week without a signature from Pedro Souza.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Lucko will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
Josip Šoljić damages knee ligaments — 106 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 106 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Mario Babić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Lovro Stanić has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
9 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.