“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Stefanos Evangelou commits to Aluminij for another 3 years.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Aluminij training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matic Vrbanec 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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. Stefanos Evangelou has moved up it.
Nobody at Aluminij 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.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Aluminij know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Jan Kvída 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Maks Veličkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
At 22 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.
Successful dribbles: 17. 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.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Jadran Dekani, another week without a signature from Tevž Debelak.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Marko Simonič is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Erik Verbic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
In brief
The dugoutRiad Silajdžić dropped after a run of poor form
10 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A brace, and Gregor Lovric takes the afternoon — 8.40
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Gregor Lovric provided it, and the 8.40 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Jan Kvída 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Jadran Dekani training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Abdul Samed Mukadas 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.
He is 21 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Maks Veličkov, and the manager let it.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
114% of the income goes out in wages at Jadran Dekani
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.
Goran Paracki 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 Maks Veličkov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Marko Simonič and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
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 Lan Jovanović is on it.
The team at the top of the table next, and the honest measure of where this side actually is. Anybody can beat the club below them; the question is what happens against ND Gorica.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against ND Gorica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Nejc Kop signs something — a contract at Jadran Dekani or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
7 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.
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.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Erik Verbic after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Nobody at Jadran Dekani is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
Slovan Ljubljana next, and one man in the Jadran Dekani dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 15 signed and 13 gone
That is the business done at Aluminij 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.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: RWDM keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Matic Vrbanec was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sabadell have kept their man, and Aluminij go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Rok Schaubach is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Jadran Dekani close the window on a squad of their own making
32 in and 20 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.
Jan Kvída 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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Jadran Dekani know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Žan Trivunčević and Jadran Dekani agree another 4 years.
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Matic Vrbanec scored in the 89th minute, Radomlje had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Aluminij took the lot.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Aluminij they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
“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 Aluminij, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Lokomotiva Zagreb keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Stefanos Evangelou has pre-agreed a move away, which means every appearance between now and June is made by a man the club can no longer sell, and somebody upstairs will be asked why the contract was allowed to get here.
Aluminij asked and Cracovia said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.