Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Successful dribbles: 22. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad25 Sep 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Vukotić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Partizan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Out, 0‑1 to Zeleznicar Pancevo, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
The fee is $1.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Radnicki Nis drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Partizan 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Andrej Milanović has just signed for Partizan, and for once the answer mattered.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Vojislav Jokić is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Nemanja Trifunović has come up in conversations Partizan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Milan Vukotić 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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Ibrahim Al Shamsi 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.
8.54. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The offer from Napredak for Nemanja Trifunović 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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Squad7 Aug 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Karlsbakk 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.
At 31 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
Marked 8.07 — 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Napredak for Bogdan Kostić 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 ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 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.
At 25 the improving is meant to be over. It is not: 3 points better than the mark taken at the start of the year, which is the sort of thing that happens to players who take the boring parts of the job seriously.
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
In brief
Player ratingsNinety minutes of Diego García at his very best
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Add another name to the list: Osasuna have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Ognjen Ugrešić. The answer from Partizan has not changed — yet.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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 a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Napredak for Nemanja Trifunović was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Partizan is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $670.0K has been paid because Filip Samurović is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The offer from Vojvodina for Bogdan Kostić 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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Partizan training over how hard people work
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Erik Kojzek's mistake
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Partizan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Francisco Portillo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Partizan 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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: Vojvodina have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Bogdan Kostić. The answer from Partizan has not changed — yet.
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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
9 shots, and a count that reads like a good afternoon until you check the other column. Strikers survive weeks like this on the understanding that the chances keep arriving; the day they stop is the day it becomes a problem.
Facundo Mansilla was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Partizan are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
7 attempts, none of them in. He got into the right places all afternoon, which is the hard part, and did the easy part badly — and that is the version of a bad day a manager can live with.
Marked 5.58. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Partizan can pretend not to have heard.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Daniel Karlsbakk provided it, and the 8.57 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Bogdan Kostić, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.08
A mark of 8.08 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Matija Marsenić has just signed for Partizan, and for once the answer mattered.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
It finished 3‑2, and it was Daniel Karlsbakk’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Partizan.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Karlsbakk 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.
93 minutes played. Daniel Bîrligea found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Radnicki Nis went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bogdan Kostić did not need any: 7.62, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Facundo Mansilla was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Marked 8.31 — 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Partizan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Bîrligea 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 want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Partizan hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
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.
Bogdan Kostić, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.10
A mark of 8.10 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
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.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Karlsbakk 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.
TSC made Partizan work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Daniel Bîrligea 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.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Maccabi Tel Aviv did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $10.2M for Ion Nicolăescu, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
“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 Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane 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.
A 3‑2 win over Radnicki Nis, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Bîrligea 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 terraces30 Aug 2027
Partizan spend $10.2M on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $10.2M for Ion Nicolăescu, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
“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 Partizan know it.
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Partizan, and it is not being withdrawn.
The name of Saša Zdjelar has come up in conversations Partizan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
The offer from Cukaricki for Bogdan Kostić 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Qualification is done, and next season the floodlights come on for something bigger. A stage for the players, oxygen for the accounts and a passport for everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad31 May 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bogdan Kostić 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.
19 games, 7 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Partizan now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
A season average of 7.15 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Cukaricki know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
49 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad10 May 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Vukotić is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
“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 Partizan, and 4 appearances in 16 say he has earned the hearing.
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 Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Nobody at Partizan 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.
In brief
SquadThe manager has not finished forgetting Amor Layouni's mistake
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad12 Apr 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Saša Zdjelar's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
“I watch every Partizan game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Korona runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Loan watchThe goals keep arriving from Marko Lekić’s exile
Stefan Mitrović 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Karlsbakk is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cukaricki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marko Milošević and Partizan agree another 2 years.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Milan Vukotić 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.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Demba Seck has come out of that comparison in the side, and Partizan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Srđan Mijailović 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Cukaricki, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Two goals and a mark of 7.91 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Srđan Mijailović 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.
Bogdan Kostić, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 8.29
A mark of 8.29 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.
13 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The paperwork is done long before the player is. Botché Candé has agreed terms to come here when his current deal runs out, which means Cukaricki have spent a summer's transfer budget on a phone call.
“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 Cukaricki know it.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Bogdan Kostić is the division's best young player this month
At 20 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Cukaricki will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Karlsbakk 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Stefan Mitrović will call it something else in private.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bogdan Kostić did not need any: 8.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.12 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
A 3‑2 win over Spartak Subotica, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
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.
Derby days make names, and Diego García made his against Crvena Zvezda. 3‑2, bragging rights secured, and one half of town will be tired of hearing about him by Tuesday.
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.
Ognjen Ugrešić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Karlsbakk 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.
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.
8 goals in 20 games at Metalist — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Partizan updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Cukaricki can pretend not to have heard.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Coby Ebere has agreed terms with Radnicki 1923 for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Churre 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.
Marked 8.32 — 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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Cukaricki told Uroš Miladinović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Position 2, 47 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.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Cukaricki have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Ismaël Maïga has come up in conversations Cukaricki were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Cukaricki training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nenad Tomović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
11 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Marked 8.71 — 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad11 Jan 2027
Nenad Tomović 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 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. Cukaricki will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
A season average of 7.05 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Cukaricki know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
10 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Lazar Mijović 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.
Add another name to the list: TSC have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Matija Marsenić. The answer from Cukaricki has not changed — yet.
“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 Cukaricki, and 14 appearances in 17 say he has earned the hearing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The name of Nemanja Trifunović has come up in conversations Partizan were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Milan Vukotić 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 Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Jhonier Hurtado, and the manager let it.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Nenad Tomović 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.
Marked 3.31. Nothing he attempted worked and by the hour mark he had stopped attempting much, which is the part a manager notices rather than the mistakes.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 13 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Javor-Matis? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Milan Pavkov signs something — a contract at Cukaricki or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 1, 42 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.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.89 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Bogdan Kostić is 19, and for one weekend he was the best of everybody his age in the division. Nobody should build a career on it and everybody quietly does.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bogdan Kostić did not need any: 8.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
He is 19, he is averaging 7.06, and older professionals have started passing to him in the difficult minutes. That last part is the real scouting report.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
8 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.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Cukaricki are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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 a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Daniel Karlsbakk 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 injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“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 Partizan, and 12 appearances in 11 say he has earned the hearing.
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bogdan Kostić did not need any: 8.51, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Churre 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Bogdan Kostić 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.
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Nenad Tomović 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 one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
1‑2 against Ludogorets. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
1 for Ognjen Ugrešić, marked 6.83, 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Partizan training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Daniel Karlsbakk 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.
Milan Vukotić 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.
3 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Javor-Matis will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Partizan were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Partizan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Srđan Mijailović 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Lazar Tufegdžić. 1‑0 against Mladost Lucani, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Lazar Tufegdžić was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.42. 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Cukaricki training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nenad Tomović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Cukaricki this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The award is a small thing with a heavy meaning: for four weeks nobody in this division did his job better. Cukaricki have the trophy on a shelf and the player in the side.
“I watch every Cukaricki game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Zeleznicar Pancevo runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.