It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 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 Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Orijent 1919 could ask drops and the wages Tarik Šikalo can ask rise.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orijent 1919 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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.
54 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tarik Šikalo will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orijent 1919 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Raul Kumar 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orijent 1919, 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miroslav Iličić signs something — a contract at Orijent 1919 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
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 Orijent 1919 have no good answer.
“Judge me on him.” Managers do not say that kind of thing by accident — it moves the pressure from Tarik Šikalo’s shoulders onto his own, and both of them know it.
Ivan Križanović 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.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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 had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orijent 1919, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orijent 1919 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Raul Kumar 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.
5 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.
In brief
The dugoutVice Baždarić knocks on the manager's door
54 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orijent 1919 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar 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 Vice Baždarić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
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 Tian Kujović has written the date down.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Miroslav Iličić signs something — a contract at Orijent 1919 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Orijent 1919 have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Toni Vinogradac 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.
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Orijent 1919. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orijent 1919, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orijent 1919 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Tarik Šikalo 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 Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
5 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Orijent 1919, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Segesta have kept their man, and Orijent 1919 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout12 Feb 2029
Ivan Mamut is playing like a man with something to prove
The oldest phenomenon in the sport: a new voice in the dressing room and suddenly everybody is available for everything. Ivan Mamut is training as though the last team sheet never existed, because as far as he is concerned it does not.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Corey O'Keeffe trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orijent 1919 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“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 Orijent 1919 will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
6 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Orijent 1919 could ask drops and the wages Tarik Šikalo can ask rise.
“I have watched this squad. There is more in it than the table says.” First press conference, first promise — Ralph Schuster made the one every new manager makes, and now comes the part where it gets checked.
1-4. Going out of a cup is one afternoon; going out like that is a week of phone-ins, and the manager will hear every one of them.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 5 signed and 5 gone
That is the business done at Orijent 1919 until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hajduk Split waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orijent 1919 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
54 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Tedesco will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orijent 1919 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The offer went to Croatia Zmijavci 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The phone has started ringing about Josip Cundeković again, and this time the name on the line is BSK Bijelo Brdo. Orijent 1919 are listening politely and promising nothing.
The offer from HNK Rijeka for Tarik Šikalo 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 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Solin waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Orijent 1919 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
He is going to Hajduk Split, the club has $4.5M it did not have on Friday, and the phone-ins have already decided how they feel about that. Selling well and selling somebody they loved are not the same skill.
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Ilja Azyavin has just signed for Orijent 1919, and for once the answer mattered.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orijent 1919 have done the hard part with Dinamo Zagreb, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Segesta have kept their man, and Orijent 1919 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad15 Jan 2029
Raul Kumar 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.
In brief
BoardroomStill no name above the door at Orijent 1919
Croatia Zmijavci will want this one forgotten quickly: 4‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Orijent 1919 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad25 Dec 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
Marked 8.11 — 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.
Marked 8.10 — 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.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jon Ficko has his answer from Orijent 1919; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orijent 1919 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Raul Kumar did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
1 for Gabriel Feitosa, marked 7.29, 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.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 7.98 beside his name.
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Orijent 1919 lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Player ratings4 Dec 2028
A brace, and Ivan Mamut takes the afternoon — 8.70
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Ivan Mamut provided it, and the 8.70 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orijent 1919 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
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.
9 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Squad4 Dec 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
38 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orijent 1919 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orijent 1919 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orijent 1919 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
Nobody at Orijent 1919 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.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orijent 1919 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Ivan Križanović 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.
Squad13 Nov 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
8 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.
Marked 8.03. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Orijent 1919.
The dugout13 Nov 2028
the manager has his say
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” the manager on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. BSK Bijelo Brdo will replay every second of the added time for a week.
34 points, and the rest of the division looking up. Every side that finishes first spends the season pretending it is not thinking about it, and this one has started pretending.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Orijent 1919 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Orijent 1919 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 Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Noa Aron Stašić obliged against Rudes. 2‑0 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Orijent 1919.
“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 Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orijent 1919 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Butta Magomedov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orijent 1919 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marko Bugarin will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Orijent 1919 the goodbyes have quietly begun.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orijent 1919 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Squad9 Oct 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
Match7 Oct 2028
After 6 games, Orijent 1919 finally taste it again
The first defeat in 6 matches. The manager will say it had to come; the dressing room will say it did not have to come against Karlovac 1919; the supporters will say both, in that order, all week.
Position 1, 28 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
6 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Marked 8.18 — 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.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
4 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.
Tarik Šikalo and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Sep 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Duje Kramaric is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Fran Knezevic has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
“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 Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
“I know what people will say. I know what I want, and it is here.” Radnik Krizevci had the fee agreed and the shirt ready; they did not have the player, and now they will not.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orijent 1919 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Orijent 1919 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Moscow, 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 Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Sep 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
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.
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Orijent 1919 know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
“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 Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Orijent 1919 is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Orijent 1919 have done the hard part with Rapid Wien, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Radomlje is saying, and nobody at Orijent 1919 is enjoying the guessing.
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad28 Aug 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radomiak Radom have kept their man, and Orijent 1919 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Toni Vinogradac 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.
“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 Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything agreed with Sturm Graz, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Santos is saying, and nobody at Orijent 1919 is enjoying the guessing.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Aug 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
Orijent 1919 asked and Segesta said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
“I was told straight, and I would rather have it straight.” The manager at Orijent 1919 has been clear about where Petar Bočkaj stands, which is more than many ever get.
“This is a club with real history, and I did not have to think about it for long.” The new manager takes charge with every slate wiped clean.
The terraces7 Aug 2028
The mood at Orijent 1919 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.
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for 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 Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Orijent 1919 they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Orijent 1919 asked and Istra 1961 said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad17 Jul 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
Slaven Belupo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Supporters organise against the Orijent 1919 board
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this 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 Orijent 1919, and it is not being withdrawn.
Orijent 1919 and Segesta have settled on $82.0K. The rest belongs to the player and his agent, and a supporter who has watched one of these before knows not to buy the shirt yet.
Orijent 1919 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Segesta, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Day 9 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
Orijent 1919 asked and NK Varazdin said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Marko Bugarin 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.
$1.8M on the table at Istra 1961. 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 number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $16.7K — a club that wants Tin Ljubanović enough to be asked twice.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
$110.0K was the most the club would pay and Istra 1961 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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orijent 1919 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Orijent 1919 would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Orijent 1919 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Lokomotiva Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Orijent 1919 offered $500.0K; HNK Vukovar 1991 said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Orijent 1919 have gone to Istra 1961 with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.
The injury that keeps coming back, keeps being rushed back from, and quietly costs more careers than the dramatic ones. 16 days is the estimate; the honest figure depends on whether anybody is patient.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Orijent 1919 hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
Marko Bugarin 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.
“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 Orijent 1919 know it.
It is arithmetic now, and the arithmetic is done. A summer of hard questions starts early at Orijent 1919, and next season's fixture list reads very differently.
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Orijent 1919 heard it as anything else.
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $77.9K — a club that wants Jozo Vukman enough to be asked twice.
$140.0K on the table at Uljanik Pula. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Téo Barišić 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 offer went to Uskok 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.
“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; Orijent 1919 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
In brief
SquadWords at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 May 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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 mood at Orijent 1919 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.
Ante Oreč 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.
Squad17 Apr 2028
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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; Orijent 1919 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Orijent 1919 know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
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 Mateo Barać has written the date down.
Four paragraphs on the club website, none of them about football. The board thanked him, wished him well, and had the search under way before the page went up.
“I am not thinking past Saturday, and I would advise nobody else to.” The caretaker’s first rule is to pretend the job is small; Andrej Grbic recited it perfectly.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
HNK Rijeka will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Domagoj Ivan Marić has pre-agreed a move to Orijent 1919, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Squad3 Jan 2028
Raul Kumar 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.
Orijent 1919 asked and Croatia Zmijavci 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 bill for the sacking has arrived. Marko Pasalic leaves with $182.3K for the time left on his deal, and that money buys the club nothing it can put on the pitch.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Jakov Dedić is in the works
The dugoutA fresh start for Ante Oreč under the new man
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.
Toni Vinogradac 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.
Squad27 Dec 2027
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Petar Bočkaj 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vice Baždarić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager plants his flag on Raul Kumar
SquadVinko Međimorec is training like a man with a point to make
Position 10 and 11 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.
Vice Baždarić and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vice Baždarić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Vice Baždarić signs something — a contract at Orijent 1919 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The last league game has been played and the table has stopped moving: 11 points. The summer begins on Monday, and so does the argument about what it all meant.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
“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; Orijent 1919 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
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.
Successful dribbles: 26. 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.
7.93, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
8 matches without a win, and then this, against Lokomotiva Zagreb. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
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.
8 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.
Successful dribbles: 21. 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.
Squad22 Nov 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Miroslav Iličić will call it something else in private.
The board was up, the win was priced in, and then HNK Gorica scored. There is no worse minute to concede in and the ground emptied in the silence that follows one.
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Orijent 1919 can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Successful dribbles: 21. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
Toni Vinogradac 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The mood at Orijent 1919 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Orijent 1919
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Orijent 1919 can pretend not to have heard.
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.
Vice Baždarić 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.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
Hrvatski Dragovoljac go through and Orijent 1919 go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Words at Orijent 1919 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Raul Kumar 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.
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Raul Kumar 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 tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Orijent 1919 can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Dinamo Zagreb in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
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.
Tarik Šikalo 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
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 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Marko Pasalic to a room that had heard them before.
It finished 3‑1, and it was Ivan Mamut’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Orijent 1919.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Raul Kumar 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 was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Orijent 1919 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Ivan Mamut had Orijent 1919 level again within 3 minutes, and Slaven Belupo never got to play with a lead at all.
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.
20 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Orijent 1919 lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Orijent 1919 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Tarik Šikalo 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 had gone 6 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Raul Kumar 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 words a physio says slowly. 34 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 bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Orijent 1919 will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
This is not cover and nobody is pretending it is. $1.3M has been paid because Ivan Mamut is straightforwardly better than what was already here, and the club has decided to stop waiting.
There comes a point where a club either backs its own ambition or admits it does not have any. Orijent 1919 have paid $500.0K for Vinko Međimorec, which is the loudest way there is of saying which one it chose.
The deal with HNK Rijeka 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Portuguesa have kept their man, and Orijent 1919 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Petar Bočkaj 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.
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Orijent 1919 will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
NK Varazdin did not want to sell and the number is why they did. $400.0K for Petar Bočkaj, and the expectation that arrives with him is the kind no amount of settling-in period softens.
The offer went to Slaven Belupo 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.
Vice Baždarić 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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Raul Kumar 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.
13 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Karlovac 1919 were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The offer from Uskok for Samuli Miettinen 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.
The phone has started ringing about Josip Radošević again, and this time the name on the line is Opatija. Istra 1961 are listening politely and promising nothing.
1 for Josip Radošević, marked 7.75, 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.
Istra 1961 had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at NK Maribor, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Marko Tolić 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.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at Istra 1961
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
In brief
SquadSilvio Goričan falls out with a teammate over standards
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. NK Osijek have kept their man, and Orijent 1919 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Raul Kumar was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
He is 19, and nobody at Orijent 1919 signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
Every shape has positions in it and this one does not have his. Orijent 1919 will either change the shape, change his job, or change his club, and he is waiting to hear which.
A loan enquiry to Chacarita Juniors: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Isao Tokora is in the works
Squad5 new faces, and Orijent 1919 are still learning each other
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Hrvace waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Istra 1961 is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Istra 1961 can pretend not to have heard.
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. Hrvatski Dragovoljac have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Diego Alexander Rossi and Istra 1961 agree another 4 years.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Istra 1961 know which stage they are at.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Istra 1961 is running low.
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. the manager has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Raul Kumar had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
HNK Rijeka paid $5.7M and Istra 1961 took it, which is the whole story in one sentence. The longer version involves a wage budget and will be told all season.
Vinko Rozić has gone, the accounts have $5.7M 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.
Marko Tolić 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.
Istra 1961 asked and Sesvete said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
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.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Istra 1961 people have started saying his name in the past tense.
The phone has started ringing about Raul Kumar again, and this time the name on the line is Dinamo Zagreb. Istra 1961 are listening politely and promising nothing.
Istra 1961 asked and HNK Rijeka said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Istra 1961 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Nik Škafar Žužić is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
Lokomotiva Zagreb wanted more than $32.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
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.