Marked for Marko Zebić
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match12 Sep 2026
No end in sight to Lucko's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Lucko has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
No thanks: Nikola Simić rejects the move
Lucko had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Partizan, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Cracovia have kept their man, and Lucko go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Petar Orsic 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 Lucko this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout14 Sep 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Goran Erceg after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad14 Sep 2026
“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.
Match12 Sep 2026
The crowd waited for a goal that never came. Sibenik defended in numbers and left with what they came for, and the two sides could be playing still without troubling a scorer.
Looking ahead14 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is David Tabak’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Lucko needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 21 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Lucko until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Lucko have done the hard part with Partizan, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Lucko
Petar Orsic and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
Niko Farkaš gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Niko Farkaš is on it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Lucko will explain it as a decision about the team, and it may well be one. A dressing room has never once read it that way.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Petar Orsic
“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
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Niko Đolonga and Lucko agree another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Lucko
David Tabak 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Nobody at Lucko has picked up the phone to Niko Đolonga
49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.
Squad3 Aug 2026
7 new faces, and Lucko are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Dinamo 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan move for Niko Farkaš is in the works
Lucko have made the call to NK Osijek. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Rudes 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.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Zadar: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.