89 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Dukla Prague lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“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.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dukla Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Dukla Prague have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad12 Jun 2028
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brown Irabor 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.
114 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dukla Prague lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
“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 The request is on a desk at Dukla Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 May 2028
Namory Cissé 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 Dukla Prague know it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Samson Tijani trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague 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 Zlatan Šehović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Namory Cissé trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Dukla Prague 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.
Two hours a week with a tutor, which is the least glamorous thing at Dukla Prague and the one that decides whether a foreign signing is still here in two years.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Pavel Gaszczyk’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
The offer from JIPPO for Jan Hájek 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague 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 Zlatan Šehović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dukla Prague, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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 Rajmund Mikuš is on it.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Dukla Prague. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Jan Bačkovský’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
A brace, and Boubou Diallo takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Boubou Diallo provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dukla Prague can pretend not to have heard.
6 goals in one match, Boubou Diallo on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dukla Prague and Jihlava.
Jihlava left with the points after a 2‑4 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Brown Irabor 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Dukla Prague can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Dario Kreiker 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 clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Sparta Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Brown Irabor has just signed for Dukla Prague, and for once the answer mattered.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
The offer went to Viktoria Žižkov 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.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dukla Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Samson Tijani 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.
14 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Akram Bouras 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
The dugoutNo place for Namory Cissé on the big day
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Dukla Prague is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zlatan Šehović 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Karel Schick after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
The mood at Dukla Prague has turned into something else
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 Dukla Prague, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Dukla Prague people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Add another name to the list: Artis Brno have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Olatoundji Tessilimi. The answer from Dukla Prague has not changed — yet.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Zlatan Šehović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Dukla Prague asked and Shakhtar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
80 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dukla Prague lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dukla Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Dukla Prague training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tidjane Traoré 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.
8 goals in 28 games at Petrojet — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Dukla Prague updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jakub Plšek signs something — a contract at Dukla Prague or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Chinonso Emeka is on it.
The table is being checked before the results are in, which is always the tell. Nobody at Dukla Prague says the word and every senior player in the building is thinking it.
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 Jan Kozojed has written the date down.