Marked for Mahmudu Bajo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom1 May 2028
Pressure builds in the Napredak boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Squad1 May 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Napredak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market1 May 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Napredak, another week without a signature from Nemanja Stevanović.
The dugout1 May 2028
Andrija Majdevac has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Napredak 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.
The dugout1 May 2028
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Nemanja Stevanović was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
The dugout1 May 2028
Youri Doku 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.
Squad1 May 2028
A season on the outside for Mahmudu Bajo
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Napredak has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Boardroom1 May 2028
A squad written off a fortnight ago has closed ranks. Whatever was said behind that door, it has held so far.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout24 Apr 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Srećković has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Napredak is pretending otherwise.
Squad24 Apr 2028
A falling-out at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout24 Apr 2028
Mirko Ivanić has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Napredak 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout17 Apr 2028
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Mahmudu Bajo 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 Napredak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
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 Marko Mladenović is on it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
No hiding place for Salim Ali
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Salim Ali, and the manager let it.
The dugout17 Apr 2028
Luka Drobnjak knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Napredak, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market17 Apr 2028
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Napredak know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Loan watch17 Apr 2028
27 starts and a season average of 6.88. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Market17 Apr 2028
Napredak have let the market know Rinor Rexhepi can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
Match17 Apr 2028
A season winding down at Napredak
Position 12, 28 points, safe from one end and out of reach of the other. The last weeks are about next season now, and the team sheet has started saying so.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market27 Mar 2028
Jovan Šljivić has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Crvena Zvezda they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 dugout27 Mar 2028
Mohamed Abo Fani has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Crvena Zvezda 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Mar 2028
Andrija Radonjic damages knee ligaments — 30 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 30 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.
Match6 Mar 2028
The season ends: position 12 for Napredak
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 28 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikola Srećković commits to Napredak for another 3 years.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Words exchanged at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Match4 Mar 2028
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Dragan Bojat 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.
Player ratings6 Mar 2028
Andrija Majdevac did the work nobody counts — 6.90
9 combined actions and 6.90. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“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.
Market6 Mar 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Napredak, another week without a signature from Nemanja Stevanović.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Andrija Radonjic
38 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Napredak lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match23 Feb 2028
Napredak through in the cup
A 1‑0 win over Cukaricki, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Market28 Feb 2028
“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 Napredak, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Napredak may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Srećković has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Napredak is pretending otherwise.
Squad28 Feb 2028
A falling-out at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces28 Feb 2028
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.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Juninho was unplayable
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.
Match26 Feb 2028
0‑1 to Partizan, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout14 Feb 2028
Stefan Simić: 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.” Napredak have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad14 Feb 2028
There were 6 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.
Match12 Feb 2028
4 matches without a win for Napredak
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Napredak are no longer polite ones.
Transfer targets14 Feb 2028
Napredak asked and Viktoria Plzen said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad14 Feb 2028
A row about effort at Napredak
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dragan Bojat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Andrija Majdevac was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.08. 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.
Market14 Feb 2028
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Napredak, another week without a signature from Harry Clifton.
Match12 Feb 2028
A 1‑1 draw with Crvena Zvezda leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout14 Feb 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Jan 2028
Age has not caught Mirko Ivanić yet — 8.16
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.16 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market17 Jan 2028
“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 Napredak, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Portsmouth have kept their man, and Napredak go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Match15 Jan 2028
A 1‑0 win over Mladost Lucani, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Rinor Rexhepi, and the manager let it.
Transfer targets17 Jan 2028
Viktoria Plzen 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 dugout17 Jan 2028
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Luka Tadic, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
The dugout17 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market10 Jan 2028
“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.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: TSC keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words exchanged at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A loan move for Abraham Marcus is in the works
Napredak have made the call to FCSB. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets10 Jan 2028
A loan enquiry to Sparta Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager makes an example of Stefan Simić
“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 dugout10 Jan 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.97, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Napredak
Aleksandar Đukanović 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
Novi Pazar made Napredak work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
The manager makes an example of Rinor Rexhepi
“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 dugout20 Dec 2027
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Luka Tadic on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Napredak man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Andrija Majdevac was the best thing in any of them.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 12. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Market20 Dec 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Napredak know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Juninho was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 38. 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.
Match24 Nov 2027
Napredak win it in stoppage time
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 120th minute. Spartak Subotica will replay every second of the added time for a week.
Squad29 Nov 2027
There were 6 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Mahmudu Bajo 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 terraces29 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“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.
Match27 Nov 2027
0‑1 to Zeleznicar Pancevo, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Dragan Bojat 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
Player ratings22 Nov 2027
Age has not caught Mirko Ivanić yet — 8.03
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.03 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
Frank Scholz: 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.” Napredak have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Mahmudu Bajo 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 Napredak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match20 Nov 2027
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match22 Nov 2027
Napredak at the halfway mark
Half the programme played, position 12, 15 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Nikola Bukumira
“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 terraces22 Nov 2027
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.
The dugout22 Nov 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Nov 2027
7 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.
Market8 Nov 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Bogdan Marinković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Napredak the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match6 Nov 2027
It finished 1‑0, and it was Vieri Kotzebue’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Napredak.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.05, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager makes an example of Dragan Bojat
“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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Defensive actions: 16. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Luka Tadic could afford to be generous.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 14 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
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
Uneasy
Match16 Oct 2027
No end in sight to Napredak's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Napredak has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad18 Oct 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Napredak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Napredak training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dragan Bojat 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.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Luka Drobnjak, and the manager let it.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Nobody on the pitch touched Harry Clifton
7.42, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Napredak had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
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 dugout18 Oct 2027
Mahmudu Bajo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Napredak, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Luka Tadic chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market11 Oct 2027
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Napredak they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Words exchanged at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Napredak
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dragan Bojat was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikola Bukumira, and the manager let it.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
Mahmudu Bajo knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mahmudu Bajo trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market11 Oct 2027
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Napredak, another week without a signature from Dragan Bojat.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
A test against the best for Napredak
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against Vojvodina.
Looking ahead11 Oct 2027
Vojvodina next, and one man in the Napredak dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The dugout11 Oct 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad4 Oct 2027
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Napredak lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 10 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad4 Oct 2027
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Match2 Oct 2027
1‑2 to Radnicki 1923, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
The manager makes an example of Rinor Rexhepi
“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.
Market4 Oct 2027
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 1‑2, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
The dugout4 Oct 2027
Nemanja Đeković is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Squad4 Oct 2027
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
Nemanja Stevanović damages knee ligaments — 69 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 69 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 dugout23 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Napredak may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market23 Aug 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 Napredak, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Aug 2027
A falling-out at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Napredak asked and Slavia Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
19 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Vieri Kotzebue was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.04. 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad16 Aug 2027
77 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Napredak lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Aug 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Novi Pazar, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Market16 Aug 2027
Miloš Tošeski 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 Napredak can pretend not to have heard.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Market16 Aug 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Napredak is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match14 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Napredak
4 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Napredak
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Napredak asked and Krasnodar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad5 Jul 2027
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Napredak lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad5 Jul 2027
A fracture rules Youri Doku out for 36 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Napredak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Bohemians 1905 is saying, and nobody at Napredak is enjoying the guessing.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Mahmudu Bajo 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 Napredak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
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.
Market5 Jul 2027
Add another name to the list: Bukhara have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bogdan Marinković. The answer from Napredak has not changed — yet.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Miloš Tošeski 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.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Karpaty: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Jun 2027
128 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Napredak lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market28 Jun 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Mladost Lucani waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Napredak is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Squad28 Jun 2027
A fracture rules Youri Doku out for 43 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Napredak will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market28 Jun 2027
The bid was some way short and Napredak did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad28 Jun 2027
At 22 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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Napredak this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout28 Jun 2027
The manager makes an example of Filip Krstić
“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.
Transfer targets28 Jun 2027
Bohemians 1905 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Jun 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Crvena Zvezda have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market21 Jun 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Vasilije Kostov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
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.
Transfer targets21 Jun 2027
Crvena Zvezda offered $2.1M; Vojvodina said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Market21 Jun 2027
The chase for Marko Veličković ended with $1.0M changing hands and Vojvodina out of reasons to say no. The supporters will judge the fee the only way that matters: on Saturdays.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Marko Veličković has just signed for Crvena Zvezda, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Jovan Trač is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Market21 Jun 2027
The name of Loizos Loizou has come up in conversations Crvena Zvezda were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad21 Jun 2027
Mihailo Ristić 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match3 May 2027
65 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Squad3 May 2027
“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 Crvena Zvezda know it.
Squad3 May 2027
Mihailo Ristić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 May 2027
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 Timi Max Elšnik is on it.
The dugout3 May 2027
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.
The dugout3 May 2027
Jovan Trač knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jovan Trač trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match24 Apr 2027
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Husain Norchayev will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Navbahor escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
A brace, and Husain Norchayev takes the afternoon — 8.84
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Husain Norchayev provided it, and the 8.84 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match24 Apr 2027
Whatever happens, Navbahor do not lose
9 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words exchanged at Navbahor
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match24 Apr 2027
It needed Husain Norchayev to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Neftchi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
“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 dugout26 Apr 2027
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 dugout26 Apr 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market29 Mar 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad29 Mar 2027
Benjamin Teidi 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 dugout29 Mar 2027
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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
The dugout29 Mar 2027
Mahmudu Bajo knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Navbahor, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Zabihillo O'rinboyev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Navbahor needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market29 Mar 2027
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Navbahor know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Looking ahead29 Mar 2027
Looking ahead: the trip to Metallurg
Position 9 for the hosts, a long journey for the away end, and a fixture that will look ordinary on paper right up until it is not.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
7 starts and a season average of 6.75. The loan is doing exactly what it was arranged to do.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The shrug has gone, the language is coming, and he now argues in training like somebody who expects to be here next year. Half a signing's value is this and none of it appears on a fee.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market22 Mar 2027
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Crvena Zvezda can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Squad22 Mar 2027
The step up is real for Adem Avdić
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.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“I watch every Crvena Zvezda game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Navbahor runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Crvena Zvezda would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. Crvena Zvezda would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
Squad22 Mar 2027
He goes off to be somebody else’s player for a fortnight. Crvena Zvezda lose him for the window and would like him returned in the condition he left.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
Mirko Ivanić 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 Mirko Ivanić has written the date down.
Market22 Mar 2027
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Adebayo Adeleke leaves Crvena Zvezda the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Giorgi Jgerenaia, and the manager let it.
Loan watch22 Mar 2027
“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 Navbahor, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
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 Benjamin Teidi is on it.
The dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Otabek Nematov was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Navbahor dressing room was either.
Match20 Mar 2027
Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Mashal came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.
Market22 Mar 2027
The name of Husain Norchayev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Navbahor say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad22 Mar 2027
A window away with the national side, and a shirt at Navbahor that briefly doubles as an advertisement. A call-up flatters the player and the club that built him in the same breath.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market1 Mar 2027
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ruslanbek Jiyanov had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Squad1 Mar 2027
“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 Navbahor know it.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Benjamin Teidi wants one last season at home
Every long career reaches the week the last one is thought about. He would like it to be where he started, and Navbahor know now that the thought has arrived.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Market1 Mar 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Ruslanbek Jiyanov has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Navbahor.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Words at Navbahor training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Shohruhbek Abdurahmonov 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 dugout1 Mar 2027
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 Saidazamat Mirsaidov is on it.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout1 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Valijon Rahimov
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match20 Feb 2027
The unbeaten run reaches 19. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Successful dribbles: 23. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Feb 2027
Mihailo Ristić 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 dugout22 Feb 2027
Matheus 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.
Match20 Feb 2027
Behind, and beaten by any honest reading, until minute 86. Partizan had the points in their pocket and a corner of the ground still believed, which is generally when it happens.
Loan watch22 Feb 2027
“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 Crvena Zvezda, and 0 appearances in 5 say he has earned the hearing.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
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 Mihailo Ristić is on it.
Match20 Feb 2027
It needed Marko Arnautović to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Partizan, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout22 Feb 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Slobodan Vlahovic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market8 Feb 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Navbahor have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market8 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Islombek Mamatkazin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Navbahor the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad8 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Navbahor this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
Nobody at Navbahor 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.
The dugout8 Feb 2027
“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.
Market8 Feb 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Husain Norchayev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
Squad8 Feb 2027
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Navbahor has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
Squad8 Feb 2027
His past walked in ahead of him. Players who have been where he has been get a hearing in a dressing room before they have earned one, and he has it for as long as his form does.
Market8 Feb 2027
Navbahor spent the window trying to move Ruslanbek Jiyanov on and nobody came. He trains with a squad that has already told him he is not part of it, and both sides now wait for the next one.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad1 Feb 2027
Shoxmalik Komilov damages knee ligaments — 36 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 36 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Kokand 1912 waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Navbahor close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 4 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
Navbahor say no — this time
The offer from Obod for Islombek Mamatkazin 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 targets1 Feb 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Cortulua keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Market1 Feb 2027
The fee was agreed and the flight was looked at — and then the phone stopped ringing. Shortan moved on, Shoxmalik Komilov reports back to Navbahor, and everybody pretends Monday is just Monday.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Benjamin Teidi 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.
Transfer targets1 Feb 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad18 Jan 2027
Shoxmalik Komilov damages knee ligaments — 50 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 50 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Andijon had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Market18 Jan 2027
Navbahor say no — this time
The offer from Foolad for Husain Norchayev 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.
Market18 Jan 2027
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Qizilqum waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Navbahor is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
The clubs have shaken hands with AGMK; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
Transfer targets18 Jan 2027
Navbahor asked and Sogdiana said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad18 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Navbahor
Mahmudu Bajo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout18 Jan 2027
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad11 Jan 2027
Shoxmalik Komilov damages knee ligaments — 57 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 57 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Navbahor have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market11 Jan 2027
Navbahor say no — this time
The offer from Levadiakos for Ruslanbek Jiyanov 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.
Market11 Jan 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Navbahor can pretend not to have heard.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Muslimbek Habibullayev is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
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.
Transfer targets11 Jan 2027
A loan move for Mahmudu Bajo is in the works
Navbahor have made the call to Crvena Zvezda. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
The dugout11 Jan 2027
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 Dilshodjon Komilov is on it.
Market11 Jan 2027
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Husain Norchayev’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Nov 2026
Out, 3‑3 to Napredak, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.32 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
7 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.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
A defender's goal wins it for Crvena Zvezda — 7.97
1 for Mahmudu Bajo, marked 7.97, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Hamad Abdulrahman 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.
Match21 Nov 2026
Whatever happens, Crvena Zvezda do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match21 Nov 2026
Three points for Crvena Zvezda, 2‑0 the final word against IMT in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Marked 8.08 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tomás Händel and Crvena Zvezda agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Hamad Abdulrahman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
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 dugout12 Oct 2026
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Crvena Zvezda. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Rade Krunić wants to know why he earns less
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Crvena Zvezda have no good answer.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“I want to play”: Mahmudu Bajo speaks
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match5 Oct 2026
Crvena Zvezda refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 17 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.
Squad5 Oct 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 Crvena Zvezda this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Jovan Trač is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 17 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.
Match3 Oct 2026
0‑1 to Mladost Lucani, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Nobody left the Crvena Zvezda dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Crvena Zvezda are still strangers to each other
18 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 dugout5 Oct 2026
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Squad5 Oct 2026
International break empties Crvena Zvezda
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
87% of the income goes out in wages at Crvena Zvezda
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad28 Sep 2026
Mihailo Ristić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Mahmudu Bajo is 22, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Match26 Sep 2026
Whatever happens, Crvena Zvezda do not lose
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match26 Sep 2026
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.
Match26 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohamed Abo Fani. 1‑0 against TSC, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad28 Sep 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
A performance of 8.06 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
The dugout28 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.” Slobodan Vlahovic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Mirko Ivanić
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Aug 2026
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Mihailo Ristić decided nobody was going anywhere. OFK Beograd had no time left to answer.
Market31 Aug 2026
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mahmudu Bajo had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
Market31 Aug 2026
The fee is $1.5M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. IMT drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Market31 Aug 2026
Potenza come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Crvena Zvezda did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Match29 Aug 2026
Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Crvena Zvezda have 3 straight wins of it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Iván Martos arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Iván Martos has, at Crvena Zvezda, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Mihailo Ristić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Vojvodina have kept their man, and Crvena Zvezda go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The match ball belongs to Marko Arnautović, whose 4 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Match19 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Zeleznicar Pancevo, and the draw for the next round can be watched with some interest for once.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 9.88 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Aug 2026
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Sochi had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
No sign of nerves from Jovan Trač at 17 — 7.94
The hardest thing about being 17 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jovan Trač did not need any: 7.94, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The offer went to IMT 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.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Vojvodina wanted more than $2.0M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Market24 Aug 2026
The offer from Qizilqum for Mahmudu Bajo 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.