“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 The request is on a desk at ND Gorica, and it is not being withdrawn.
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.
“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; ND Gorica are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Add another name to the list: NK Krka have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Taj Rožič Šuligoj. The answer from ND Gorica has not changed — yet.
Position 8 and 16 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what ND Gorica can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at ND Gorica is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Žurga 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.
Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Michael Pavlović 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.
In brief
SquadA muscle injury sidelines Rok Ilicic for 14 days
Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Žurga 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at ND Gorica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
The words a physio says slowly. 27 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 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.
Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
85 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. ND Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
7 arrivals, an average age nobody would call a squad, and a set of parents being shown around a building their sons will spend more time in than at home. The scouting has already happened; today is only the paperwork.
16 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Words at Rudar Velenje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Matevž Dajčar 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.
Rocco Vicol 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.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 23 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rudar Velenje is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
In brief
SquadAnte Kozina has improved at 25, which nobody expected
SquadTom Kljun falls out with a teammate over standards
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Martin Plavec Marković will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rudar Velenje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The terraces7 Jun 2027
Rudar Velenje spend $780.0K on the signing the town wanted
It is the rarest sequence in football: supporters ask for something, and the club goes and does it. $780.0K for Matevž Dajčar, and for one week nobody is complaining about anything.
Squad7 Jun 2027
Words at Rudar Velenje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Kljun 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.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Rudar Velenje 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 Rudar Velenje 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.
In brief
SquadGal Gorenak has become a man the manager trusts
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rudar Velenje is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad3 May 2027
Tom Kljun 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elmir Avdić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rudar Velenje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Ante Kozina 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 Rudar Velenje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Kljun 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 ND Gorica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad15 Mar 2027
Words at ND Gorica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ilias Chatzitheodoridis 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.
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.
In brief
Squad7 new faces, and ND Gorica are still learning each other
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
There is no worse way to lose a footballer. Elmir Avdić 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.
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Rudar Velenje lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Elmir Avdić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Rudar Velenje the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Rudar Velenje is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Feb 2027
Words at Rudar Velenje training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tom Kljun 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.