Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jihlava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Kühnel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jihlava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jihlava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Feb 2032
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jihlava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Jaroslav Zelený 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.
7 goals in one match, Tomáš Kocour on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Jihlava and Slovacko.
Squad26 Jan 2032
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
Everyone has stopped pretending: Mlada Boleslav will make the call about Michael Kühnel this week. Jihlava have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.
In brief
Player ratingsThe cruellest goal, and it is Dominik Farka's
Jaroslav Zelený 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 Dec 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
Jaroslav Zelený 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 Dec 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 8 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings3 Nov 2031
A brace, and Tomáš Kocour takes the afternoon — 8.71
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Tomáš Kocour provided it, and the 8.71 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Luděk Němeček 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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Tomáš Kocour had Jihlava level again within 2 minutes, and Sigma Olomouc never got to play with a lead at all.
24 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
1 for Martin Sládek, marked 7.61, 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.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Michael Kühnel will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Jihlava the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Jaroslav Zelený 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.
Squad20 Oct 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
The goal that put Viktoria Plzen ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Jihlava equalised, 1 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Jaroslav Zelený 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.
Squad6 Oct 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
Jaroslav Zelený 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.
Beaten 1‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Sep 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luděk Němeček 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.
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.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.53 for the rest of it.
Jaroslav Zelený 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.
6 goals in one match, Martin Sládek on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Jihlava and Banik Ostrava.
At 24 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.
The words a physio says slowly. 53 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.
Jaroslav Zelený 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 24 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Jihlava training over how hard people work
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.
Matěj Polidar 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.
Squad6 Jan 2031
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvis Ogiomade 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 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 23 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Position 15 and 17 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.
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.
Jaroslav Zelený 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.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Words at Jihlava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marvis Ogiomade 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martin Sládek. 1‑0 against Pribram, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
14 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 14 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 58 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
16 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Jihlava lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
22 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.
At 23 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Miroslav Křehlík. 1‑0 against Sigma Olomouc, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The mood at Jihlava 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Jihlava will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Position 14 and 9 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.
29 times he got in the way of something. Centre-halves get written about when they make mistakes and ignored when they do not, so an afternoon like this needs saying out loud: he is the reason the scoreline reads as it does.