Marked for Stan Held
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Sep 2029
No end in sight to Slovacko's wait for a win
19 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slovacko has to find a result from somewhere.
Match8 Sep 2029
7 matches without a goal for Slovacko
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 7 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
Stan Held keeps the receipts
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slovacko may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Sep 2029
A falling-out at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Words at Slovacko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lukáš Vorlický 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.
Match8 Sep 2029
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Transfer targets10 Sep 2029
The clock did what Dukla Prague would not, and ended it. Supporters who watched the countdown will spend the next window doing it again.
The dugout10 Sep 2029
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings10 Sep 2029
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
In brief
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Boardroom
Wages swallow 89% of the Slovacko income
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Isaiah Ejeh
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The terraces
The glare is on Milan Heča
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces25 Jun 2029
Anger at Slovacko spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Match25 Jun 2029
Slovacko sink to position 16
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Transfer targets25 Jun 2029
The deal with Slavia Prague is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words exchanged at Slovacko
Marek Havlík 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.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Tadeáš Tichánek is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Squad25 Jun 2029
Words at Slovacko training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Conor McCarthy 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 dugout25 Jun 2029
Matěj Čechal gets it from the manager
“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 dugout25 Jun 2029
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
Market25 Jun 2029
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slovacko, another week without a signature from Diego Tampieri.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces30 Apr 2029
Anger at Slovacko spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad30 Apr 2029
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 54 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match30 Apr 2029
Slovacko sink to position 16
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market30 Apr 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slovacko can pretend not to have heard.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A falling-out at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Apr 2029
A row about effort at Slovacko
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Lukáš Vorlický was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad12 Mar 2029
A fracture rules Michal Trávník out for 108 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Slovacko will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market12 Mar 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Marek Havlík 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 Slovacko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Mar 2029
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Slovacko know it.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Conor McCarthy 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 Mar 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gigli Ndefe, and the manager let it.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Milan Heča gets picked when it counts
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 Milan Heča is on it.
The dugout12 Mar 2029
Filip Vácha 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 Filip Vácha has written the date down.
Market12 Mar 2029
The name of Filip Hruška keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Slovacko say nothing, which says plenty.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces5 Mar 2029
Supporters organise against the Slovacko board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Squad5 Mar 2029
116 days out for Michal Trávník after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slovacko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match5 Mar 2029
Slovacko are in real trouble now
Position 16, 10 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
Martin Barak has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Slovacko can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market5 Mar 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slovacko can pretend not to have heard.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Jakub Snopek: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slovacko have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Lukáš Vorlický and Slovacko agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad5 Mar 2029
A falling-out at Slovacko
Marek Havlík and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Lukáš Vorlický 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
Crisis
The terraces8 Jan 2029
Supporters organise against the Slovacko board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match8 Jan 2029
Slovacko sink to position 15
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad8 Jan 2029
86 days out for Dalibor Takáč after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Slovacko will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Market8 Jan 2029
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Slovacko can pretend not to have heard.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Stan Held gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Stan Held has just signed for Slovacko, and for once the answer mattered.
Match6 Jan 2029
5 matches without a win for Slovacko
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Slovacko are no longer polite ones.
Market8 Jan 2029
Slovacko say no — this time
The offer from Napredak for Matěj Čechal 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.
Transfer targets8 Jan 2029
Everything agreed with Dukla Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.