It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Croatia Zmijavci 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 Antonio Marić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against BSK Bijelo Brdo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
A year in and the city has not opened up, the language has not come, and lunch is eaten alone more often than anybody at Croatia Zmijavci would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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.
5 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Josip Tarabarić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ivan Medvidović and Croatia Zmijavci agree another 3 years.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
Borna Barišić is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Dino Babic after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Croatia Zmijavci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
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 7.31 for the rest of it.
$710.0K on the table at HNK Rijeka. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Tomislav Gudelj 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.
Croatia Zmijavci asked and Lokomotiva Zagreb said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Antonio Marić was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ivan Medvidović and Croatia Zmijavci agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The words a physio says slowly. 45 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.
Tomislav Gudelj and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 May 2027
Antonio Marić 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 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 Croatia Zmijavci know it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Tomislav Gudelj signs something — a contract at Croatia Zmijavci or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Croatia Zmijavci this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Antonio Marić 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.
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ádám Décsy and Croatia Zmijavci agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.