Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastian Pech is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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 about the week ahead is ordinary. Slavia Prague B on Saturday, a town that has already started talking about it, and a dressing room that does not need telling what it means.
The dugout21 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Stanislav Brabec to a room that had heard them before.
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 Matyáš Jedlička is on it.
Petr Zíka 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 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jeremy Rebibo and Sparta Prague B agree another 4 years.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Stanislav Brabec after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
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 Petr Zíka is on it.
A brace, and Lukáš Moudrý takes the afternoon — 9.03
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Lukáš Moudrý provided it, and the 9.03 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Lukáš Moudrý decided nobody was going anywhere. Táborsko had no time left to answer.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Arsen Vitarigov did not need any: 7.70, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Petr Zíka 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.
At 18 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.
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Sparta Prague B scored in the 92th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Sebastian Pech is 17, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Lukáš Moudrý 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 1‑0 win over Slavia Kroměříž, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Stanislav Brabec, on a 1‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Nobody at Sparta Prague B 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.
Successful dribbles: 31. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings14 Sep 2026
Arsen Vitarigov, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 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.
2‑3 to Banik Ostrava B, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Roman Horák 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 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 Sparta Prague B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Sparta Prague B know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Sparta Prague B 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.
At 20 he is being measured against the rest of the division's kids and coming out in front. The senior version of this award is where the club would like this to lead.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Matyáš Jedlička's mistake
The dugoutPetr Zíka has become a man the manager trusts
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Slovan Liberec had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
The offer from Pohronie for Sebastián Zajac 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.
Roman Horák 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 fixture the calendar is arranged around. Form goes out of the window, the table is not consulted, and for ninety minutes Sparta Prague B will be judged on one thing only.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Anokye Mensah 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.