The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Slavia Prague B have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Player ratings31 Jul 2028
Abel Cedergren, 19, 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 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague B 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 Daiki Hashioka was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 19-year-old it feels ownership of. Abel Cedergren 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.
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Jan Lacko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The words a physio says slowly. 21 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.
Jan Lacko 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 Evgeny Morozov 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 Slavia Prague B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“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 Slavia Prague B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
30 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Slavia Prague B lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Slavia Prague B people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The name of Daiki Hashioka has come up in conversations Slavia Prague B were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Add another name to the list: Viktoria Žižkov have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Martin Kovář. The answer from Slavia Prague B has not changed — yet.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Slavia Prague B will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Slavia Prague B, another week without a signature from Gibril Sosseh.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Prague B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
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.
“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 Slavia Prague B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Prague B, 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 Jan Lacko has written the date down.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Slavia Prague B would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Daiki Hashioka 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.
“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 Slavia Prague B, and it is not being withdrawn.
“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 Slavia Prague B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Prague B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Aleks Bozhev is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Daiki Hashioka 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 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.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Slavia Prague B could ask drops and the wages Pregnon Bahi can ask rise.
The message was aimed at the stands as much as the dressing room: Vladimir Perišić plays, and the argument is closed until the manager decides otherwise.
Position 13 on 26 points. Every season is a story and this is the last line of it, and now the club has three months to decide what the next one is about.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Jan Coufal after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Bartosz Szywała is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
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.
Daiki Hashioka 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Slavia Prague B, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Slavia Prague B has been clear about where Nazar Domchak stands, which is more than many ever get.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Martin Kovář did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
“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 Slavia Prague B know it.
He is 22 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.
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 2‑1, Jan Coufal could afford to be generous.
In brief
Player ratingsJakub Šmiga beats them one at a time
The dugoutOndřej Kolář knocks on the manager's door
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Matěj Zachoval 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 name of Daiki Hashioka has come up in conversations Slavia Prague B were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
“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 Slavia Prague B, 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 Slavia 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.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
In brief
The dugoutJakub Šmiga knocks on the manager's door
14 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
“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; Slavia Prague are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
1‑0 against LASK, under lights, against people who do not speak the same language as the crowd. These are the evenings a club measures its decade in, and there are never as many of them as anybody expects.
1 for Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane, marked 7.94, 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.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Patrik Horváth is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Petr Schick after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“I watch every Slavia Prague game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Slovan Liberec 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Matyáš Kozák trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Karviná in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
“For the first time in years I am picked because somebody wants me in the team.” Chrudim suits him; the awkward conversation belongs to Slavia Prague, and the summer will force it.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Slavia Prague has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
3‑1 against Volendam, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Mohamed Ali Ben Romdhane was at the centre of the description.
Two goals and a mark of 8.31 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
10 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.
“I did not go to Lokomotiv Sofia to sit and watch. I want to come back to Slavia Prague and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 17 matches say the rest.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Youssoupha Sanyang 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.
Marked 8.02 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Matyáš Kozák will call it something else in private.
In brief
Squad5 Slavia Prague players away with their countries
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Slavia Prague this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“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 Slavia Prague, and 0 appearances in 13 say he has earned the hearing.
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.
Bohemians 1905 next, and one man in the Slavia Prague dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Slavia Prague will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
4 goals in 7 games at MSK Zilina — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slavia Prague updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
Tomáš Svoboda 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.
Score against anybody else and it is a goal. Score against them and it is a story with your name in it for a decade, and Slavia Prague supporters have already started telling it.
At 21 he was better than everybody his age in the division for four weeks running, which is harder than one good afternoon. Slavia Prague will try not to make too much of it.
With 5 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
1‑1 against LASK, and a performance that will be described to people who were not there for the rest of the season. Vasil Kušej was at the centre of the description.
It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Slavia Prague can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.
Jan Lacko 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mikuláš Konečný and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years.
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Vasil Kušej was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.26. 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.
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Slavia Prague pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Jan Lacko did not need any: 7.67, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
At 19 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.
Daiki Hashioka 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.
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.
31 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Slavia Prague B has to find a result from somewhere.
The offer from Septemvri for Nazar Domchak 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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jakub Šmiga and Slavia Prague B agree another 5 years.
“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 Slavia Prague B know it.
30 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.
Jan Lacko 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.
8 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Squad2 Aug 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Martin Kovář
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Martin Kovář has come out of that comparison in the side, and Slavia Prague B have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout2 Aug 2027
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Jan Coufal chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
The captaincy has been taken off Oleksandr Petrenko. Slavia Prague B will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Daiki Hashioka 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.
28 games, 4 goals, and a squad option that has arrived without a fee attached. The interesting question at Slavia Prague B now is not whether he plays but who he displaces.
10 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Ondřej Pavlík had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
$580.0K on the table at Slovacko. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Jan Lacko 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Sigma Olomouc have kept their man, and Chrudim go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Chrudim have made the call to Sigma Olomouc. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Chrudim know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Chrudim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Middlesbrough arrived with $16.2M and left with the best player in the building. The board will call it business; the queue at the ticket office will use other words.
Slavia Prague asked and Kristiansund said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
David Zima has gone, the accounts have $16.2M 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.
The offer went to Zbrojovka Brno 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $1.4M — a club that wants Denis Granečný enough to be asked twice.
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.
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 Youssoupha Sanyang is on it.
Chrudim had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Sparta Prague, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chrudim 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.
Chrudim asked and Sparta Prague said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
A loan enquiry to Slovan Liberec: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Slavia Prague have had the benefit of it.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Slavia Prague heard it as anything else.
26 appearances and 0 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
Aleks Bozhev 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and David Moses trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Nobody at Slavia 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 5 on 38 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.
4 goals in 28 games at Chrudim — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Slavia Prague updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
24 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Chrudim lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
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 Jakub Kolář is on it.
In brief
The dugoutDavid Jambor knocks on the manager's door
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.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Slavia Prague know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Position 5, 38 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“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 Slavia Prague will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 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.
26 appearances and 9 goals away from here, and a player the manager did not have in August. Loans are sent out hoping for exactly this and most of them do not deliver it.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Mojmír Chytil trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“46 caps was 46 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Slavia Prague.
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 Youssoupha Sanyang is on it.
38 points from position 5. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
A strip of cloth that decides nothing on the pitch and tells the dressing room whose opinion counts. The manager has made a statement without making one.
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.
9 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Ondřej Pavlík trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Position 5, 52 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Michal Sadílek and Slavia Prague agree another 5 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Patrik Horváth is 19, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
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.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Slavia Prague would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Position 5 on 38 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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Slavia Prague have no good answer.
Marked 7.82 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.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Chrudim close the window on a squad of their own making
3 in and 1 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
Marek Icha 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Chrudim and České Budějovice, 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chrudim will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jan Lacko 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.
Two goals and a mark of 9.72 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chrudim will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Two goals and a mark of 8.27 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Chrudim will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about 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 Chrudim 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Dollard Wandji's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Opava next, and one man in the Chrudim dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Martin Toml trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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.
He looks like a man who lives here now rather than one who is working here. It took most of a season, and at Chrudim the difference is visible from the back of the stand.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Chrudim will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Position 3, 22 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Successful dribbles: 24. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Jan Lacko 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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Fortune Bassey was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.65. 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Chrudim will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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.
Jan Lacko 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words at Chrudim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fortune Bassey 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 4 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Adam Richter has his answer from Chrudim; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Adam Jánoš 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.
At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
The system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The offer from Táborsko for David Jurčenko 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.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Chrudim close the window on a squad of their own making
20 in and 12 out, and no more changes for months. The manager has what he has, the supporters have their opinion of it, and the table will have the last word.
The deal with Sparta Prague 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Chrudim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Chrudim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Fortune Bassey 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.
Chrudim asked and Bohemians 1905 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 manager has re-ordered his thinking and Adam Richter has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
11 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.