26 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. HNK Gorica lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
“I listened, I thought about it, and I am staying. That is the whole story.” The clubs had agreed a fee. Mateo Leš had not agreed to go, which turned out to be the part that mattered.
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.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom26 Jul 2027
5 academy players handed senior numbers at HNK Gorica
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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Jurica Pršir was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at HNK Gorica can tell you which week it ends in.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Hrvoje Stanisic has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The offer from APOEL for Đivo Pregelj 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.
A season average of 7.28 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Kustosija know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kustosija have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
The deal with NK Varazdin 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.
Nikola Maksimović 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 Saša Domić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The name of Leo Bartolović has come up in conversations Kustosija were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Dinamo Zagreb 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.
The kind of year that ends with a name being read out in a hall. Kustosija had the benefit of it every week and now have the problem of everybody else knowing.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Nikola Maksimović 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lovro Dukić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Kustosija have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Nikola Maksimović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Words at Kustosija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomislav Krizmanić 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.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
A season average of 7.28 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Kustosija know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Kustosija training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikola Maksimović 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.
Matija Kolarić 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.
“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 Kustosija will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Lovro Dukić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Kustosija know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Taj Rožič Šuligoj did not need any: 7.66, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom1 Feb 2027
Kustosija close the window on a squad of their own making
2 in and 0 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kustosija this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Saša Domić 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. DAC Dunajska Streda have kept their man, and Kustosija go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Taj Rožič Šuligoj. 1‑0 against Djakovo Croatia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“I watch every Kustosija game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Solin runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
In brief
Transfer targetsA loan move for Moreno Živković is in the works