The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Lokomotiva Zagreb 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 The request is on a desk at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and it is not being withdrawn.
Dinamo Zagreb paid $2.0M and Lokomotiva Zagreb took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
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.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Hajduk Split were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Zadar waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Lokomotiva Zagreb is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Lokomotiva Zagreb can pretend not to have heard.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dušan Vuković and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Girona have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off 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 Lokomotiva Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yannick Touré 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.
“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; Lokomotiva Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
“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.
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.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Feta Fetai and Lokomotiva Zagreb agree another 5 years.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Estudiantes have kept their man, and Lokomotiva Zagreb go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Lokomotiva Zagreb has been clear about where Marko Vešović stands, which is more than many ever get.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Milan Srna 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.
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Jakov-Anton Vasilj 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Krka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Olimpija Ljubljana have kept their man, and NK Krka go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Marko Brkić 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.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Gregor Handanovic is living that version at NK Krka, and it tends to show in the first month.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Lewis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I watch every NK Krka game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at NK Zavrc runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. NK Krka will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
$79.0K on the table at NK Celje. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
The phone has started ringing about Aleksa Petrović again, and this time the name on the line is NK Domzale. NK Krka are listening politely and promising nothing.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Leon Bičanić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody at NK Krka 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.
In brief
The dugoutMark Gliha asks for a word with the manager
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what NK Krka can pretend not to have heard.
At 20 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at NK Krka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$79.0K was the most the club would pay and NK Celje were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Aaron Lewis was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
A loan enquiry to Olimpija Ljubljana: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Roko Domjanić is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Aaron Lewis 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Leon Bičanić 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.
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.
Aaron Lewis and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Domen Žur 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.
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 Leon Bičanić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.