Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Málek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Banik Ostrava B will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
In brief
The dugoutPatrik Měkota asks for a word with the manager
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Banik Ostrava B is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Banik Ostrava B this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Patrik Měkota 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 Šimon Drozd trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. Banik Ostrava B know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
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.
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Banik Ostrava B will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Ales Darida was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Banik Ostrava B dressing room was either.
The manager wanted a different profile for this opponent, which is a real football reason and no consolation. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
At 23 he has made the position his own, and the man he took it from has to find something to say about it. Banik Ostrava B have a decision that made itself.
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Patrik Měkota 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 supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Position 14 and 8 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Tadeáš Frýdl and Banik Ostrava B agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
“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 dugout2 Nov 2026
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 Ales Darida to a room that had heard them before.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Vít Škrkoň has come out of that comparison in the side, and Banik Ostrava B have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Simon Nináč, 19, is the weekend’s best young player
Measured against every other kid in the division and first among them. The senior award is where Banik Ostrava B would like this to lead.
Nothing is announced when this happens and everybody knows. He is a bigger part of the plan at Banik Ostrava B than he was a month ago, and the training ground worked that out before the team sheet said so.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Filip Šancl wins it after the whistle should have gone
96 minutes played. Filip Šancl found the finish in time that only existed because of earlier delays, and Sparta Prague B went from a point to nothing inside one movement.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 8 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
The hardest thing about being 18 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Vít Škrkoň did not need any: 8.59, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
A 3‑2 win over Sparta Prague B, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Two or more conceded in each of the last 4 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Radim Šudák has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
5 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Sparta Prague B were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
The terraces14 Sep 2026
A long trip to another club worth making
3-2, and a corner of somebody else's ground that made more noise than the rest of it put together. Those coaches leave before dawn and nobody outside them ever mentions it.
In brief
SquadPatrik Měkota falls out with a teammate over standards
Martin Hrubý 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Ales Darida left the room before anybody could ask which.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Michal Málek was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Off the academy pitches and onto a senior team sheet at 19. The debut is the easy part; the second appearance is the one every young player has to earn.
Still no offer on the table, and David Krupička’s deal keeps shrinking. In boardroom language, silence this long stops being an oversight and starts being an answer.