Advan Kadušić 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; Istra 1961 are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
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.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Domagoj Petkovic kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Istra 1961 have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
In brief
The dugoutNiko Šepić has become a man the manager trusts
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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Mario Šuver 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 am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Istra 1961, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
Dinamo Zagreb next, and one man in the Istra 1961 dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Antonio Maurić signs something — a contract at Istra 1961 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Ferencvaros have kept their man, and Istra 1961 go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
1 for Josip Radošević, marked 7.72, 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.
The phone has started ringing about Raul Kumar again, and this time the name on the line is Jadran Luka Ploce. Istra 1961 are listening politely and promising nothing.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Istra 1961 have done the hard part with Rodina, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
$73.0K was the most the club would pay and Dinamo Zagreb 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Istra 1961 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vinko Rozić 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.
Filip Taraba 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.