Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Péter Baráth 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” František Matys and Sigma Olomouc agree another 3 years.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stéphane Noumbissie was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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 Péter Baráth is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sigma Olomouc know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The words a physio says slowly. 16 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around LNZ they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Lassina Traoré 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muharrem Jashari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at LNZ has been clear about where Illia Putria stands, which is more than many ever get.
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.
Péter Baráth 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Tomáš Ulenfeld and Sigma Olomouc agree another 4 years.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. David Nykrín 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.
9 goals in 14 games at LNZ — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Péter Baráth 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stéphane Noumbissie 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Michal Coufal and Sigma Olomouc agree another 3 years.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LNZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Bukovyna waiting with a shirt. Nobody at LNZ is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The clubs have shaken hands with Shakhtar; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tedi Cara provided it, and the 9.29 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
4 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Muharrem Jashari 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.
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.
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Mark Assinor was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.60. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Péter Baráth 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.
33 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout24 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Daniel Provod left the room before anybody could ask which.
Zbrojovka Brno have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from John Dembe’s exile
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muharrem Jashari 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.
Minute 89, against Polissia, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Nobody at LNZ will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Successful dribbles: 27. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jáchym Šíp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Filip Slavíček will call it something else in private.
9 goals in 13 games at LNZ — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Sigma Olomouc updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muharrem Jashari 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.
Yevhenii Pastukh 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.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Tedi Cara was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.03. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
There were 10 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings13 Dec 2027
Thiago Silvero, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.76
A mark of 7.76 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LNZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Muharrem Jashari 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
46 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LNZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
4‑0. Nights like this are why clubs spend decades trying to qualify for this competition, and they arrive perhaps twice in that time. Everybody who was in the ground will describe it badly for years.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
53 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Thiago Silvero, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.03
A mark of 8.03 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muharrem Jashari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Thiago Silvero 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.
0‑4 against Betis. The honest reading is not that the players were poor; it is that the distance between this club and that one is currently measured in things money takes years to buy.
9 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jan Koutný 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Daniel Provod after 0‑4, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 61 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.
“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 LNZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Drambaiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
68 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LNZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” LNZ have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muharrem Jashari 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Kyrylo Shaparenko could afford to be generous.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. LNZ lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
2‑2 against Crvena Zvezda, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Vorskla go through and LNZ go home, 1‑2 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Tedi Cara scored in the 89th minute, Heracles had already begun thinking about the journey home, and LNZ took the lot.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muharrem Jashari 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
85 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LNZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
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.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 2‑2, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Hilmir Rafn Mikaelsson decided nobody was going anywhere. Banik Ostrava had no time left to answer.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sigma Olomouc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Abubakar Ghali was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
93 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. LNZ lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
2‑2 against Crvena Zvezda, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. John Dembe was at the centre of the description.
2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Crvena Zvezda the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that LNZ will enjoy reviewing.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thiago Silvero did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muharrem Jashari 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. John Dembe 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.
Jan Koutný 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.
Successful dribbles: 18. 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.
David Nykrín 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.
Something was said to Michal Beran and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
The words a physio says slowly. 115 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.
0‑4. Rayo Vallecano play this football every year and it showed in every part of the pitch. The lesson is expensive and, for a club at this stage, probably necessary.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muharrem Jashari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
8.18. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The words a physio says slowly. 123 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Muharrem Jashari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. LNZ told Thiago Silvero something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
7 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 19 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Péter Baráth 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Jan Koutný 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.
7 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.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑2 Daniel Provod left the room before anybody could ask which.
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.
4‑4 against Paide, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. John Dembe will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at LNZ escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.93 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Muharrem Jashari 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.
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about LNZ and Obolon in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Marked 9.77 — 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Drambaiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The terracesLNZ supporters have found a favourite in John Dembe
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what LNZ can pretend not to have heard.
Oleksii Palamarchuk 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Muharrem Jashari 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.
Something was said to John Dembe and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Lokomotiva Zagreb have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
John Dembe had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Dynamo Kyiv were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Two goals and a mark of 9.03 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason LNZ will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Saikou Chorr did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 LNZ, and it is not being withdrawn.
Muharrem Jashari 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Oleksandr Drambaiev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Two goals and a mark of 9.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
The offer from HNK Gorica for Yevhenii Pastukh 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.
LNZ had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Racing Club, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oleksandr Drambaiev 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: John Dembe. 3‑1 against Epicentr, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. LNZ deserved better, and so did he.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
12 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
Everything agreed with Racing Club, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two 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 LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. LNZ will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 3, 64 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at LNZ this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Inhulets paid $760.0K and LNZ took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
$230.0K was the most the club would pay and Karpaty were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Gornik Zabrze have kept their man, and LNZ go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Bayer Leverkusen have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
In brief
The dugoutTedi Cara has become a man the manager trusts
The dugoutVitalii Roman knocks on the manager’s door
101 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orenburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orenburg can pretend not to have heard.
The chase for Maxim Boldyrev ended with $1.4M changing hands and Akron out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Orenburg had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sigma Olomouc, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Orenburg asked and Spartak Kostroma said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Baltika paid $380.0K and Orenburg took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Mejía was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Camilo Viganoni is in the works
108 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orenburg lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Orenburg have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Rostov for Alexey Tataev 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.
The offer went to Akron 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Dmitry Vasiljev is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Arsenal Tula have kept their man, and Orenburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sigma Olomouc will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
At 23 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
The phone has started ringing about Matěj Hadaš again, and this time the name on the line is Zadar. Sigma Olomouc are listening politely and promising nothing.
Jan Koutný 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.
At 29 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dinamo Moscow have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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 David Tkáč is on it.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Sigma Olomouc will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Zeleznicar Pancevo is saying, and nobody at Sigma Olomouc is enjoying the guessing.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. John Dembe had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Václav Sejk was one of the reasons people came, and $7.6M does not replace that by itself.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Sparta Prague paid $1.7M and Sigma Olomouc took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 146 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Péter Baráth 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Fabijan Krivak was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Odd will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josef Baccay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 2‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
Nobody at Odd is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Fabijan Krivak 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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc know it.
Squad17 May 2027
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jáchym Šíp 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.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Péter Baráth signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Sigma Olomouc that is a harder question to answer.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJan Morávek knocks on the manager's door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jan Koutný 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.
16 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fabijan Krivak 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.
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 Jáchym Šíp is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Michal Beran signs something — a contract at Sigma Olomouc or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jáchym Šíp trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Matěj Hadaš
Two goals and a mark of 9.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. John Dembe did not need any: 8.25, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josef Baccay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Samuel Kalu. 3‑1 against Lillestrom, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
At 21 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Sigma Olomouc is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Péter Baráth 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Kenneth Omeruo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
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.
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 Jiří Spáčil has written the date down.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Filip Slavíček plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
35 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Odd lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom5 Apr 2027
Odd close the window on a squad of their own making
4 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Odd will try again when the window opens; Asante Kotoko may not be selling by then.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Josef Baccay 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Zakaria Mugeese is on it.
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Péter Baráth 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jáchym Šíp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jan Morávek 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.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
$4.7M on the table at Asante Kotoko. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Odd will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
Nobody at Odd will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
57 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Odd had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sigma Olomouc, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Samuel Kalu was the name on every phone-in, and the club has gone and signed him for $7.0M. For one week the board can do no wrong, which is a week most boards never get.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josef Baccay was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sigma Olomouc lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. John Dembe had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Sigma Olomouc they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Jan Koutný 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.
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jáchym Šíp was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Sigma Olomouc, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Jáchym Šíp is on it.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Odd lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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 Odd, and it is not being withdrawn.
$7.0M on the table at Botev Plovdiv. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Teplice keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Odd this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Sigma Olomouc have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The words a physio says slowly. 49 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.
Péter Baráth 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 name of John Dembe has come up in conversations Sigma Olomouc were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jan Morávek, and the manager let it.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jáchym Šíp 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.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Sigma Olomouc has been clear about where Matúš Hruška stands, which is more than many ever get.
“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 Orenburg, and it is not being withdrawn.
Damián Puebla and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Feb 2027
Robert Mejía 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Koper have kept their man, and Orenburg go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
Orenburg have made the call to Fortaleza. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Sigma Olomouc lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Sigma Olomouc have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Sigma Olomouc close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Sigma Olomouc, and 5 appearances in 19 say he has earned the hearing.
Nobody at Sigma Olomouc will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orenburg have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Orenburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Ovsyannikov 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.
Akhmat left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Vadim Drozdov left the room before anybody could ask which.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orenburg, and both men came out saying it was fine.
124 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Sigma Olomouc lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 10 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Sigma Olomouc have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
5 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Liberec have kept their man, and Sigma Olomouc go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“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 Sigma Olomouc know it.
Fabijan Krivak 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.
A point taken on 86 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Sigma Olomouc told Václav Sejk something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Daniel Provod was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Sigma Olomouc dressing room was either.
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.
In brief
The dugoutJáchym Šíp has become a man the manager trusts
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orenburg this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Robert Mejía 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Bogdan Ovsyannikov, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑2 Vadim Drozdov left the room before anybody could ask which.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Orenburg are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Gedeon Guzina trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 18 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Match12 Sep 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Orenburg and Lokomotiv Moscow in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Robert Mejía was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
4 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Sigma Olomouc will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
A brace, and Jan Kliment takes the afternoon — 9.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Jan Kliment provided it, and the 9.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Filip Slavíček 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.
11 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.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Daniel Provod kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Add another name to the list: Banik Ostrava have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Jan Koutný. The answer from Sigma Olomouc has not changed — yet.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 8 arrived, 1 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer from Jihlava for Jakub Jezierski 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.
$1.4M was the most the club would pay and Slovan Liberec were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Fabijan Krivak 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.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 94th minute. Zbrojovka Brno will replay every second of the added time for a week.
“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.
“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 Sigma Olomouc, and it is not being withdrawn.
Péter Baráth 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 offer from Vaduz for John Dembe 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.
$1.9M on the table at Slavia Prague. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Péter Baráth 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Sigma Olomouc and Slavia Prague, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Zbrojovka Brno wanted more than $160.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Banik Ostrava paid $300.0K and Sigma Olomouc took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
In brief
SquadMichal Beran falls out with a teammate over standards
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dominik Janošek and Sigma Olomouc agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sigma Olomouc this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of John Dembe has come up in conversations Sigma Olomouc were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Sigma Olomouc training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michal Beran 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.
Still no offer on the table, and Dominik Janošek’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.