The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Istra 1961 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The clubs have shaken hands with Rudes; the player has not yet. Personal terms are next, and personal terms are where more deals die than anybody prints.
“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 The request is on a desk at Istra 1961, and it is not being withdrawn.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Istra 1961 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Everything agreed with Slavia Prague, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Aleksa Todorović 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Krasnodar have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stipe Ukich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
15 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Istra 1961 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Radnik Krizevci waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Istra 1961 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Hajduk Split, the club has $5.7M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Istra 1961 can pretend not to have heard.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rudes have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Stipe Ukich was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. Uljanik Pula will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
Josip Budimir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Uljanik Pula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Mađarić 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 has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Josip Budimir signs something — a contract at Uljanik Pula or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuli Miettinen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Istra 1961 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Silvio Goričan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Filip Taraba has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
The word out of the training ground is that he has been the sharpest man there all week. It is the quietest story a paper carries and it usually runs the week before somebody's run in the side begins.
In brief
BoardroomThe Istra 1961 board put their names to it
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Istra 1961 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Aleksa Todorović 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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istra 1961 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Istra 1961, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Istra 1961 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istra 1961 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
21 games, 5 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Istra 1961 now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
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 Emil Frederiksen is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istra 1961 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Istra 1961, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Vinko Rozić has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
In brief
SquadVinko Rozić is the talk of the training ground
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Uljanik Pula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Josip Budimir and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Leonard Vuk 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.
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 Yatera Baba is on it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Antonio Pejanović trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuli Miettinen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Istra 1961 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Advan Kadušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Istra 1961 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istra 1961 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
10 goals in 29 games at Uljanik Pula — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Istra 1961 updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
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 Šepić is on it.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istra 1961 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uljanik Pula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonard Vuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
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 Uljanik Pula will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leonard Vuk was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Samuli Miettinen will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Istra 1961 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istra 1961 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Silvio Goričan has his answer from Istra 1961; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody at Istra 1961 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Filip Taraba trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istra 1961 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Diego Saina’s exile
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Uljanik Pula will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Leonard Vuk 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 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.
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.
Player ratings22 Feb 2027
Josip Budimir was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
In brief
BoardroomWages swallow 117% of the Uljanik Pula income
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Istra 1961 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. CSKA Moscow have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Silvio Goričan trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Josip Budimir wins it after the whistle should have gone
92 minutes played. Josip Budimir found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Trnje went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Boardroom8 Feb 2027
An order from above at Uljanik Pula: somebody has to go
Balance sheets do not care about form or about who the manager was planning to build around. The board have decided a sale is required, and the only question left is which name ends up carrying it.
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.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Leonard Vuk 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 Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Youssef Mephtah 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.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Istra 1961 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer from Dinamo Zagreb for Emil Frederiksen 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Istra 1961 can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Istra 1961 close the window on a squad of their own making
3 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.
$13.0K on the table at Lokomotiva Zagreb. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Advan Kadušić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“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 Istra 1961 know it.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Uljanik Pula can pretend not to have heard.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Uljanik Pula may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Uljanik Pula 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.
The deal with HNK Rijeka is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Leonard Vuk 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 last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Istra 1961 have lost him in all but the paperwork.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Istra 1961 have done the hard part with HNK Rijeka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Mody Boune 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: NK Varazdin will make the call about Franko Kolić this week. Istra 1961 have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Rudes have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Istra 1961 has been clear about where Raul Kumar stands, which is more than many ever get.
Two goals and a mark of 8.84 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Uljanik Pula have had the benefit of it.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 14 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
The deal with NK Osijek is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Leonard Vuk 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 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.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Luka Pršlja falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout4 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 2‑3 Mislav Boric left the room before anybody could ask which.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Max Howells has just signed for Uljanik Pula, and for once the answer mattered.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
10 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Words at Uljanik Pula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Mađarić 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.
Grobnican next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
In brief
The dugoutHalf-satisfied: Mislav Boric on the draw
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 13 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
At 18 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Istra 1961 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Advan Kadušić 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.
Luka Pršlja 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.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
It finished 2‑0, and it was Josip Majić’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Uljanik Pula.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Josip Majić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.29. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Mirko Šugić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Marino Kukoč
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marino Kukoč has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uljanik Pula have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Dec 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.” Mislav Boric kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
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.
Leonard Vuk 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Uljanik Pula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Emanuel Mađarić 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 95, against Lucko, 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.
Half the programme played, position 5, 22 on the board. Doubling it is the sum every supporter has done and the only one nobody at the club will do out loud.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
“There are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
In brief
SquadStipe Ukich is the weekend's best young player
A brace, and Stipe Ukich takes the afternoon — 8.68
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Stipe Ukich provided it, and the 8.68 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Josip Majić 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 Luka Pršlja 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: Stipe Ukich. 2‑1 against Kustosija, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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.” Mislav Boric, on a 2‑1 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
In brief
SquadA Uljanik Pula teenager takes the young player award
Successful dribbles: 22. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Istra 1961 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Advan Kadušić 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 did not go to Dugo Selo to sit and watch. I want to come back to Istra 1961 and fight for my place.” 5 appearances in 13 matches say the rest.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Vinko Rozić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.06. 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.
A 1‑1 draw with NK Osijek leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
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.” Domagoj Erceg chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
Nobody at Istra 1961 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: 24. 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.
Leonard Vuk 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 Emanuel Mađarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.01, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Mislav Boric to a room that had heard them before.
Something was said to Benjamin Pajković and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The division's best last weekend was a Uljanik Pula man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Josip Budimir was the best thing in any of them.
In brief
SquadStipe Ukich, 19, is the weekend’s best young player
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 4‑1 against Solin, and it could have been more.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A brace, and Josip Budimir takes the afternoon — 9.20
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Josip Budimir provided it, and the 9.20 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Luka Pršlja was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Stipe Vladušić 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.
At 19 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.
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Josip Budimir in the middle of it, and Solin unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
In brief
Player ratingsLeonard Vuk beats them one at a time
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istra 1961 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Something was said to Franko Kovačević and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“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 Istra 1961, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Istra 1961 are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Fran Brodić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Istra 1961 needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Istra 1961 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 34 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Uljanik Pula is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
A goal on 91 minutes turned three points into one and a good afternoon into an argument about game management that will run until Saturday.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
95% of the income goes out in wages at Uljanik Pula
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Albert Malaj was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Diego Alexander Rossi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Uljanik Pula have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
That is the business done at Uljanik Pula 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.
Leonard Vuk 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.
Uljanik Pula asked and Kalamata said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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 a new contract, not a new number: a new place in the manager’s thinking, which is the only promotion in football that actually matters. Josip Budimir has moved up it.
Djakovo Croatia next, and one man in the Uljanik Pula dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Successful dribbles: 33. 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Luka Pršlja is living that version at Uljanik Pula, and it tends to show in the first month.
Fabijan Petričević 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kustosija have kept their man, and Uljanik Pula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Leonard Vuk 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.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Ivan Kasalo has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Fran Sucic is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Dario Lovren has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Going 2 down does something to a side, and what it usually does is finish them. Not here. Uljanik Pula rebuilt the afternoon goal by goal, and Mladost Zdralovi had no answer to any of it.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ahmed Durmo did not need any: 7.75, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Leonard Vuk 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.
He is 19 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.
He is doing his job and he is not settling. Uljanik Pula were supposed to be a step up in his own reckoning, and his own reckoning has been adjusted since he arrived.
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.
He is doing things on a Saturday afternoon that nobody around him can answer, which is flattering for about one season and a problem after that. Uljanik Pula will not keep him by pretending otherwise.