Marked for Yusuf Saitoğlu
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom7 May 2029
The statement thanked him for his efforts and wished him well, in that order and in about that many words. The search begins immediately.
Squad7 May 2029
A knee injury of the worst kind for David Němeček
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Slavia Kroměříž lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 May 2029
Position 16, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Boardroom7 May 2029
Slavia Kroměříž have nobody left to take training
Not an interim appointment — an institution with an empty coaching office. Somebody unfamiliar will run the sessions this week, and the question of how a club gets into this state is one the board will be asked and will not answer.
Boardroom7 May 2029
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad7 May 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jakub Dostál and Slavia Kroměříž agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 May 2029
Justin Araujo Wilson 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.
Squad7 May 2029
David Moučka and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom7 May 2029
The bill for the sacking has arrived. Daniel Schick leaves with $209.2K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces26 Mar 2029
Anger at Slavia Kroměříž 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Tomáš Solil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Kroměříž this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Justin Araujo Wilson 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Everybody at Slavia Kroměříž saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 35 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
Ezra Carrington asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market19 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Matěj Klepáč
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Matěj Klepáč will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Kroměříž the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Mar 2029
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Araujo Wilson 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.
Squad19 Mar 2029
David Moučka 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 dugout19 Mar 2029
“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.
Market19 Mar 2029
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
The dugout19 Mar 2029
Ibrahim Aldin asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market19 Mar 2029
The clock does Matěj Klepáč’s negotiating for him
5 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Slavia Kroměříž could ask drops and the wages Matěj Klepáč can ask rise.
Squad19 Mar 2029
The training reports on Ezra Carrington are not good
A bad Saturday is forgiven; a bad Tuesday is chosen. Standards have slipped and in a building where everybody watches everybody, it has been noticed.
Boardroom19 Mar 2029
23 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match3 Mar 2029
12 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The caretaker keeps it: Daniel Schick confirmed
A month of looking elsewhere ended where it started. He already knows every name in the building; the rest of it he now has to prove in public.
Match5 Mar 2029
Position 16 on 15 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Squad5 Mar 2029
7 saves: Jan Derka was the team
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Market5 Mar 2029
Only the photograph left for Ibrahim Aldin
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Ibrahim Aldin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Slavia Kroměříž the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The dugout5 Mar 2029
Yusuf Saitoğlu: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Slavia Kroměříž have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Ibrahim Aldin has agreed terms with Pardubice for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Justin Araujo Wilson and Slavia Kroměříž agree another 4 years.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The numbers do not look good at Slavia Kroměříž
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Slavia Kroměříž may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad27 Nov 2028
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Kulíšek 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.
Squad27 Nov 2028
David Moučka and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Patrik Kulíšek
“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.
Match25 Nov 2028
0‑1 to Pribram, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Patrik Masopust after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout27 Nov 2028
Jason Noslin asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Squad27 Nov 2028
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Slavia Kroměříž will feel it on Saturday.
Player ratings27 Nov 2028
Successful dribbles: 10. 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Nov 2028
Every point is an argument now for Slavia Kroměříž
Position 16 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Tomáš Solil 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Araujo Wilson 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Something was said to Dominik Kříž and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
Jason Noslin asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Yiğit Zorluer
“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.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Dominik Kříž’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Slavia Kroměříž needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Market20 Nov 2028
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Market20 Nov 2028
Slavia Kroměříž have let the market know Felix Irorere can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces14 Aug 2028
Anger at Slavia Kroměříž 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.
Match12 Aug 2028
No end in sight to Slavia Kroměříž's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slavia Kroměříž has to find a result from somewhere.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
The paperwork begins on Lukáš Franc
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Slavia Kroměříž have done the hard part with Sparta Prague, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Tomáš Solil and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Aug 2028
Karviná left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Transfer targets14 Aug 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Hradec Králové have kept their man, and Slavia Kroměříž go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Kulíšek 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.
Squad14 Aug 2028
Everybody at Slavia Kroměříž saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 37 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Match12 Aug 2028
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Justin Araujo Wilson had Slavia Kroměříž level again within 4 minutes, and Karviná never got to play with a lead at all.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom29 May 2028
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Slavia Kroměříž
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Slavia Kroměříž training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Justin Araujo Wilson 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.
Squad29 May 2028
Lukáš Holík 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.
Boardroom29 May 2028
87% of the income goes out in wages at Slavia Kroměříž
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.
The dugout29 May 2028
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Squad29 May 2028
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
The dugout29 May 2028
Lukáš Holík knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Kroměříž, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Squad29 May 2028
Jason Noslin has company in his position
The competition arrived without a word said to him about it. Jason Noslin keeps the shirt for now, at Slavia Kroměříž's convenience rather than his own.
Market29 May 2028
Yusuf Saitoğlu signs, and the fee column stays empty. Deals like this look small in July and clever by March — or they are never mentioned again.