A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Lokomotiva Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiva Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Ante Utrobičić 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.
“I did not go to Hajduk Split to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 16 appearances in 48 matches say the rest.
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 Petar Antolković has written the date down.
In brief
SquadMario Šitum is training like a man with a point to make
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Ivan Žutić
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Dominik Babić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Hajduk Split the goodbyes have quietly begun.
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 Joao Ortiz is on it.
Squad24 Apr 2028
Roko Vojvodić 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Hajduk Split know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Komnen Andrić has done the arithmetic and does not like the answer. Nothing corrodes a squad faster, and no club has ever solved it by explaining the wage structure to a footballer.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Hajduk Split could ask drops and the wages Dario Melnjak can ask rise.
13 graduates from an academy now rated 15 out of 20. A club this size does not survive any other way, and every name on that list is known in the town.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sunderland keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
$38.6M on the table at Bournemouth. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Hajduk Split asked and Racing Genk said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The phone has started ringing about Dennis Hadžikadunić again, and this time the name on the line is Poltava. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer went to Sunderland this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Luka Hodak had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“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 Hajduk Split, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Karlo Muhar delivers — 6.21
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Karlo Muhar scored, was marked 6.21, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Marko Livaja 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and BSK Bijelo Brdo waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Hajduk Split is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Everything agreed with NK Osijek, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.95 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Nothing about the week ahead is ordinary. Dinamo Zagreb on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
Minute 88, against NK Osijek, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
The words a physio says slowly. 25 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with Slaven Belupo is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Marko Vešović 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.
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Hajduk Split lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Hajduk Split have lost him in all but the paperwork.
The offer went to NK Osijek this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.
4 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.
9 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
The phone has started ringing about Toni Silić again, and this time the name on the line is NK Domzale. Hajduk Split are listening politely and promising nothing.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Antonio Srna has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
In brief
SquadRon Raçi falls out with a teammate over standards
The dugoutIvan Katić faces a manager he fell out with
The offer from HNK Gorica for Krunoslav Hendija was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Leon Belcar and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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.
Marko Rog 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.
Lokomotiva Zagreb asked and Kawasaki Frontale said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The name of Ivan Katić has come up in conversations Lokomotiva Zagreb were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiva Zagreb has been clear about where Jakov-Anton Vasilj stands, which is more than many ever get.
Ivan Mamut 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 Ibrahim Sabra was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every Lokomotiva Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Jarun Zagreb runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
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 Josip Posavec is on it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Marko Pajač has written the date down.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Lokomotiva Zagreb know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Lokomotiva Zagreb that is a harder question to answer.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiva Zagreb they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
8 goals in 27 games at Kustosija — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Lokomotiva Zagreb that is a harder question to answer.
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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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 did not go to Hajduk Split to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 15 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
“I did not go to Hajduk Split to sit and watch. I want to come back to Lokomotiva Zagreb and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 11 matches say the rest.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
3 goals in 21 games at Dugopolje — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Lokomotiva Zagreb the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
Public backing, and the sort that costs a manager something if it turns out to be wrong. Mario Šitum has been told in front of everybody that the shirt is his.
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.
“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 Lokomotiva Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ibrahim Sabra 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 Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I watch every Lokomotiva Zagreb game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Hajduk Split runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
He went out to keep goal every week and came back with 2 games and 0 of them shut out. Somebody at Lokomotiva Zagreb argued for this move last summer; nobody is arguing for it now.
3 appearances and 1 clean sheets. A goalkeeper learns his job by playing it, and a season that gave him neither the games nor the shut-outs is a year taken off the front of a career.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Hajduk Split can pretend not to have heard.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Hajduk Split had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The offer from Varteks for Luka Hodak was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 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.
“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 Hajduk Split know it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Ismaël Diallo has his answer from Hajduk Split; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
“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 Hajduk Split, and 18 appearances in 21 say he has earned the hearing.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Ivan Katić did not need any: 7.71, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Marko Vešović 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 interest is real enough to have reached print. Lokomotiva Zagreb have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Ibrahim Sabra 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Ivan Katić 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.