Marked for Tom Teillol
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match8 Nov 2027
11 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market8 Nov 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at MFK Zvolen, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market8 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MFK Zvolen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad8 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Zvolen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Martin Mášik 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.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Ninety minutes of Marián Chobot at his very best
Marked 8.23. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at MFK Zvolen.
Squad8 Nov 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Tom Teillol
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Tom Teillol has come out of that comparison in the side, and MFK Zvolen have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Match6 Nov 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Jakub Duris was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the MFK Zvolen dressing room was either.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market20 Sep 2027
Kristián Bari hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MFK Zvolen can pretend not to have heard.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Kristián Bari 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.
Squad20 Sep 2027
A row about effort at MFK Zvolen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Mášik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match18 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad20 Sep 2027
“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; MFK Zvolen are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Iverson Negouai, and the manager let it.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
Roland Buhaj 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.
Player ratings20 Sep 2027
Marked 4.64, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Sep 2027
MFK Zvolen are in real trouble now
Position 12, 3 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad13 Sep 2027
The step up is real for Tom Teillol
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.
Market13 Sep 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at MFK Zvolen is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad13 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Zvolen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad13 Sep 2027
A row about effort at MFK Zvolen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Martin Mášik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market13 Sep 2027
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Dominik Hrosovsky is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market13 Sep 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. David Hrosovsky has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market13 Sep 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Filip Pekarik has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
A move Marián Chobot would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Marián Chobot is living that version at MFK Zvolen, and it tends to show in the first month.
Market6 Sep 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what MFK Zvolen can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
MFK Zvolen close the window on a squad of their own making
24 in and 6 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
The offer from Baník Lehota pod Vtáčnikom for Branislav Sokol 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The deal with AS Trencin 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Kristián Bari and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at MFK Zvolen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Mášik 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager makes an example of Ján Nosko
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at MFK Zvolen this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at MFK Zvolen training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Miroslav Stoch 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.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Martin Parilla faces a manager he fell out with
They have worked together before and it did not end well. Nobody at MFK Zvolen expects the new manager to have forgotten, least of all Martin Parilla.
Boardroom26 Apr 2027
85% of the income goes out in wages at MFK Zvolen
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
The dugout26 Apr 2027
Anwar Imider 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 dugout26 Apr 2027
The manager makes Šimon Gabriš a promise
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at MFK Zvolen. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Mar 2027
“The easiest signature of my career.” Juraj Piroska and MFK Zvolen agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Kristián Bari 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 Mar 2027
A move Tom Teillol would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Tom Teillol is living that version at MFK Zvolen, and it tends to show in the first month.
Squad8 Mar 2027
A row about effort at MFK Zvolen
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Miroslav Stoch was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout8 Mar 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Matej Starší, and the manager let it.
Market8 Mar 2027
Tom Teillol is 18, and MFK Zvolen have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.