Ivan Križanović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Words at Hrvace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Boško Jemo 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 have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Hrvace will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Sesvete had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Hrvace did not stop to explain themselves.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hrvace can pretend not to have heard.
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 Hrvace have had the benefit of it.
Zoran Lesjak 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
He is 23 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.
Position 2, 34 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
An average of 7.03 in a first team he is several years too young for. Hrvace have something, and by now the whole division has noticed.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Petar Šimunić 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.
“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 Hrvace know it.
The dugout20 Dec 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 0‑2 Petar Petkovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Ivan Križanović’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hrvace needing him to play as if none of it matters.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
A season average of 7.00 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Hrvace know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Ivan Dominić 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.
Something was said to Ivan Križanović and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Petar Petkovic after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against BSK Bijelo Brdo? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Petar Šimunić’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Hrvace needing him to play as if none of it matters.
In brief
The dugoutDaniel Ropar knocks on the manager’s door
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Petar Šimunić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Something was said to Stipe Vladušić and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
One weekend, judged against everybody else's. Yannick Touré has come out on top of it, and for most footballers a weekly award is the only silverware a career ever produces.
Position 2, 24 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Hrvace is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Zoran Lesjak 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 Ivan Dominić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Petar Petkovic after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Hrvace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Šimunić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Aymane Bais 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.
Three points for Hrvace, 1‑0 the final word against Dugopolje in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The dugout25 Oct 2027
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.” Petar Petkovic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Victoir Lembi N'Zelo has his answer from Hrvace; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Successful dribbles: 14. 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Hrvace they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ivan Križanović 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 Petar Šimunić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The first defeat in 4 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Sesvete; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
19 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hrvace lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
14 points and nobody above them. The word is not being said around the ground yet, and it is being thought in every seat.
Player ratings13 Sep 2027
Aymane Bais, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.97
A mark of 7.97 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.
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.
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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Words at Hrvace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Šimunić 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.
42 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Hrvace lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 9 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Varazdin have kept their man, and Hrvace go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Petar Šimunić 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.
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.
Hrvace have made the call to NK Varazdin. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
Position 11 and 20 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Rudes waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hrvace is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Petar Petkovic has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hrvace can pretend not to have heard.
Hrvace have gone to Hajduk Split with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Hrvace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Paul Bismarck Tabinas and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Hrvace training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Lucas Araújo 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Slovan Bratislava have kept their man, and Hrvace go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Aymane Bais is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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 dugout8 Feb 2027
Lucas Araújo loses the manager who believed in him
A change in the dugout is not one story, it is twenty-five of them. This is Lucas Araújo's: he was somebody's player, and now he has to be somebody else's, starting from nothing.
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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Daniel Vinković is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Ivan Dominić 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 Hrvace this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.