Marked for Harry Leigh
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Dec 2028
Nikola Leković damages knee ligaments — 76 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 76 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.
Boardroom25 Dec 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Zemun
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zemun is running low.
The terraces25 Dec 2028
Anger at Zemun spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Market25 Dec 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.
The dugout25 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Kodžić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Squad25 Dec 2028
A season average of 7.16 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Zemun know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Market25 Dec 2028
Only the photograph left for Harry Leigh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Leigh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zemun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words exchanged at Zemun
Igor Petrović 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 dugout25 Dec 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nemanja Krstić, and the manager let it.
In brief
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Match
Zemun come up short against FAP Priboj
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Boardroom
Embargo at Zemun
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Squad
Words at Zemun training over how hard people work
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Nov 2028
105 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zemun lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom27 Nov 2028
Pressure builds in the Zemun boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
The terraces27 Nov 2028
The mood at Zemun has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Kodžić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Squad27 Nov 2028
At 20, Louis Zecevic-John is already the best thing here
An average of 7.07 in a first team he is several years too young for. Zemun have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Market27 Nov 2028
Only the photograph left for Harry Leigh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Leigh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zemun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match25 Nov 2028
No clean sheets in sight for Zemun
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Zemun
Igor Petrović and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad27 Nov 2028
A row about effort at Zemun
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paschalis Staikos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad30 Oct 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nikola Leković
135 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zemun lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The terraces30 Oct 2028
Supporters organise against the Zemun board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Match28 Oct 2028
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Milan Mirosavljev will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Zemun escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Boardroom30 Oct 2028
The scrutiny sharpens at Zemun
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Zemun is running low.
Player ratings30 Oct 2028
Louis Zecevic-John, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.14
A mark of 8.14 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout30 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Kodžić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Market30 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Harry Leigh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Leigh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zemun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad30 Oct 2028
At 20, Louis Zecevic-John is already the best thing here
An average of 7.02 in a first team he is several years too young for. Zemun have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad30 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Zemun
Igor Petrović 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
Crisis
The terraces2 Oct 2028
Anger at Zemun spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zemun can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Match30 Sep 2028
Zemun taken apart
0‑3 to Mačva Šabac, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zemun
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Kodžić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Market2 Oct 2028
Only the photograph left for Harry Leigh
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Harry Leigh will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Zemun the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad2 Oct 2028
Words exchanged at Zemun
Igor Petrović 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.
Boardroom2 Oct 2028
The owner puts $85.3K into Zemun
This is money that keeps the lights on rather than money that buys a centre-half, and the difference is the whole story. A club funded by its owner rather than by its football has exactly one conversation left ahead of it.
The dugout2 Oct 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nemanja Krstić, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces4 Sep 2028
The mood at Zemun has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
The dugout4 Sep 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Kodžić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Player ratings4 Sep 2028
Up for the corner, and Paschalis Staikos delivers — 7.96
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Paschalis Staikos scored, was marked 7.96, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Deadline passes with 12 signed and 8 gone
That is the business done at Zemun 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.
Market4 Sep 2028
The Loznica deal is off
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Noah Dybvik reports back to Zemun with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
Market4 Sep 2028
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Zemun is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match2 Sep 2028
No end in sight to Zemun's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zemun has to find a result from somewhere.
Boardroom4 Sep 2028
Harry Leigh has agreed to leave Zemun for nothing
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad4 Sep 2028
Tempers go at Zemun
Igor Petrović 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Aug 2028
The cup run ends for Zemun
0‑3 against Voždovac, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market28 Aug 2028
IMT come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Zemun did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
The terraces28 Aug 2028
Zemun are taken apart by Voždovac — and the town wants answers
It finished 0-3. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market28 Aug 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 Zemun, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Aug 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 Zemun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Aug 2028
3 matches without a goal for Zemun
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 3 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Nemanja Krstić 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 dugout28 Aug 2028
Jak Alnwick 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.
Boardroom28 Aug 2028
Doors closed at Zemun
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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Boardroom
Zemun can only buy what they sell
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The dugout
Paschalis Staikos left out for tactical reasons at Zemun
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces10 Jul 2028
Supporters organise against the Zemun board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
Boardroom10 Jul 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Zemun
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Market10 Jul 2028
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zemun have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market10 Jul 2028
Marko Jovović has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Zemun they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Market10 Jul 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.
The dugout10 Jul 2028
This is not rotation. Nikola Kodžić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Squad10 Jul 2028
He is 20, he is averaging 7.09, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Tempers go at Zemun
Paschalis Staikos 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Nemanja Krstić 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
Market26 Jun 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.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
This is not rotation. Lukijan Abadžija has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Jun 2028
A falling-out at Zemun
Igor Petrović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Paschalis Staikos 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 targets26 Jun 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovacko have kept their man, and Zemun go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Boardroom26 Jun 2028
Nobody arrives at Zemun until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Zemun this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout26 Jun 2028
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Milan Mirosavljev trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market26 Jun 2028
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Louis Zecevic-John signs something — a contract at Zemun or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Market26 Jun 2028
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Lukijan Abadžija may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout1 May 2028
This is not rotation. Lukijan Abadžija has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
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 Zemun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 May 2028
A row about effort at Zemun
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Paschalis Staikos was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout1 May 2028
Every squad is half players the manager chose and half players he inherited. Paschalis Staikos was chosen, the man who chose him has gone, and he starts again from nothing under the next one.
Boardroom1 May 2028
Nobody arrives at Zemun until somebody leaves
The club is not barred from spending; it simply has nothing to spend that it has not first raised. Every name linked with Zemun this window arrives with a name leaving in the same sentence.
The dugout1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Harry Leigh, and the manager let it.
Market1 May 2028
Zemun have let the market know Paschalis Staikos can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
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 Zemun, another week without a signature from Harry Leigh.
Squad1 May 2028
A season on the outside for Josh Tucker
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Zemun has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Slobodan Vlahovic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market3 Jan 2028
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zemun can pretend not to have heard.
Match1 Jan 2028
The 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Andrija Ratković decided nobody was going anywhere. FAP Priboj had no time left to answer.
Player ratings3 Jan 2028
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Louis Zecevic-John did not need any: 7.98, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The dugout3 Jan 2028
This is not rotation. Marko Jovović has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Zemun is pretending otherwise.
Squad3 Jan 2028
A move Harry Leigh would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Harry Leigh is living that version at Zemun, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad3 Jan 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 Zemun this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom3 Jan 2028
Zemun counting the cost
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Zemun now.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Words at Zemun training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Leković 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.