Marked for Kaio Júnior
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad7 Jul 2031
47 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Radnik Surdulica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Vukašin Bogdanović 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.
Transfer targets7 Jul 2031
Radnik Surdulica asked and Novi Pazar said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Igor Ivanović 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.
Squad7 Jul 2031
Kaio Júnior has improved at 24, which nobody expected
Careers are supposed to plateau and then decline, and the players who ignore that are always the ones who were listening on the training ground. 3 points of it, over months, at an age where the direction normally only goes one way.
Boardroom7 Jul 2031
None of them will be seen by anybody outside the training ground for three years, most of them will never play a senior match, and one of them might change the club. That is the whole proposition, and it is why academies exist.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Brayden Johnson trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market7 Jul 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Đorđe Jovanović signs something — a contract at Radnik Surdulica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout7 Jul 2031
Axel Urie gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Axel Urie is on it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Feb 2031
David Stojanović 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.
Transfer targets17 Feb 2031
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Radnik Surdulica will try again when the window opens; Partizan may not be selling by then.
Squad17 Feb 2031
Darko Stojanović 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 dugout17 Feb 2031
Uroš Ilić gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
Darko Radonjic asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market17 Feb 2031
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Đorđe Jovanović signs something — a contract at Radnik Surdulica or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
Axel Urie gets picked when it counts
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Axel Urie is on it.
The dugout17 Feb 2031
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.
Match17 Feb 2031
Position 6, 50 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Dec 2030
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 ratings9 Dec 2030
Two goals and a mark of 9.44 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Dec 2030
A season average of 7.25 with 11 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Ninety minutes of Martin Novaković at his very best
Marked 8.36. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Radnik Surdulica.
Squad9 Dec 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Igor Ivanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings9 Dec 2030
Luka Zorić beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 18. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout9 Dec 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Igor Ivanović, and the manager let it.
Squad9 Dec 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Kaio Júnior and Radnik Surdulica agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jun 2030
Filip Kostic breaks a bone — 33 days out
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 33 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jun 2030
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Radnik Surdulica people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
$580.0K settles it between the clubs for Luke Chambers
Partizan have accepted the money. What Radnik Surdulica do not yet have is the man, and between here and the photograph is a conversation about wages that both sides are dreading.
The dugout10 Jun 2030
Leart Bekolli: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Radnik Surdulica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
The deal with Radnicki Nis 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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets10 Jun 2030
Radnik Surdulica asked and TSC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad10 Jun 2030
Words at Radnik Surdulica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Igor Ivanović 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.
Squad10 Jun 2030
“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; Radnik Surdulica are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad8 Apr 2030
David Stojanović 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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Darko Stojanović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad8 Apr 2030
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Radnik Surdulica can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
The board have put money on the table rather than an encouraging word. What happens to it now is somebody else's problem, and somebody else's job.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Radnik Surdulica, and both men came out saying it was fine.