“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 15 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Krka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miljan Pantić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timotej Drobež. 2‑1 against Bistrica, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Žan Kovačevič 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Krka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” NK Krka have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
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.
Maciej Zając 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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Bistrica in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason NK Krka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Žan Kovačevič did not need any: 8.05, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between NK Krka and Slovan Ljubljana, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miljan Pantić 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Krka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Marked 7.66 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Čanađija 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. Žan Kovačevič 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.
Legia have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
The dugout16 Aug 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.” Timi Kurtovic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka 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.
NK Krka asked and Dugopolje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. NK Krka know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around NK Krka people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Žan Kovačevič is 21, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Celje have kept their man, and NK Krka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Maciej Zając 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.
Squad28 Jun 2027
Leon Bičanić 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.
A loan enquiry to BSK Bijelo Brdo: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad28 Jun 2027
5 new faces, and NK Krka are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at NK Krka. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
Somebody to talk to at the next peg, a few words of the language, and a training ground that has stopped being a foreign country. It never appears in a scouting report and it decides most signings.
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dario Čanađija 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Žan Kovačevič trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Tilen Mlakar is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Andraž Lipec signs something — a contract at NK Krka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 5 on 41 points, and the places that carry a European ticket are close enough to count. Seasons like this are decided by two results in April, and the club knows which two.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
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 figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
“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 NK Krka, and 5 appearances in 30 say he has earned the hearing.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jaša Hribar has his answer from NK Krka; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Timotej Drobež signs something — a contract at NK Krka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Andraž Borovnik has written the date down.
A call-up flatters the player and the club that produced him in the same breath. NK Krka would like him back in one piece and know they will not be consulted.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Timotej Drobež did not need any: 7.78, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Andraž Lipec 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 are things I liked and things we will be doing on Tuesday until they are right.” 1‑1, and a manager who had already decided what Tuesday looked like.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Timotej Drobež did not need any: 8.22, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between NK Krka and Triglav Kranj, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 3‑4, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at NK Krka, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
Marko Brkić has gone, the accounts have $550.0K in them, and the supporters have the feeling of having been sold something themselves. Good business and a good decision are not always the same thing.
1 for Dario Čanađija, marked 7.75, 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Deadline passes with 2 signed and 3 gone
That is the business done at NK Krka 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.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Radomlje is saying, and nobody at NK Krka is enjoying the guessing.
The rules permit it and it stings anyway. Jure Judež has agreed terms with NK Domzale for the summer, and until then he pulls on this shirt as a player who has already chosen his next one.
Primorje paid $550.0K and NK Krka took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artemijus Tutyškinas 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 nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Žan Kovačevič did not need any: 7.86, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
The accountants will call it good business and they will be right, which is not the point anybody outside the boardroom is making. Luka Čadež was one of the reasons people came, and $660.0K does not replace that by itself.
At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something 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 NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Domen Žur was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Mark Gliha
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.
Andraž Lipec 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 1‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 86th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Luka Perković decided nobody was going anywhere. Tabor Sežana had no time left to answer.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Žan Kovačevič, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 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 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.
NK Krka asked and Wieczysta Kraków said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
He is 20 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.
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.
Andraž Lipec 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.
NK Krka asked and NK Celje said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at NK Krka training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Leon Bičanić 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 gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
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 0‑1 Timi Kurtovic left the room before anybody could ask which.
NK Krka have made the call to Rudar Velenje. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.