Marked for Ben Flavell
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Mar 2029
22 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Dubočica lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
This is not rotation. Branislav Kocić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Dubočica is pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Mar 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dubočica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Words at Dubočica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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 Mar 2029
Jan Záviška 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 Mar 2029
Azer Kozić knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Azer Kozić trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
The dugout26 Mar 2029
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market26 Mar 2029
The name of Quentin Seedorf keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Dubočica say nothing, which says plenty.
Squad26 Mar 2029
Ben Flavell wants out of the dugout
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Dubočica will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces11 Dec 2028
The mood at Dubočica has turned into something else
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.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
This is not rotation. Strahinja Bošnjak has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Dubočica is pretending otherwise.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Quentin Seedorf 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.
Squad11 Dec 2028
Words at Dubočica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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.
Match9 Dec 2028
Grafičar left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
The manager makes an example of Vladan Elesin
“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 dugout11 Dec 2028
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 Aleksandar Nastasic to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout11 Dec 2028
Luka Janković 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 Luka Janković is on it.
Player ratings11 Dec 2028
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout20 Nov 2028
This is not rotation. Quentin Seedorf has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Dubočica is pretending otherwise.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words exchanged at Dubočica
Mirko Andrić 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.
Squad20 Nov 2028
18 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad20 Nov 2028
Words at Dubočica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Stefan Šapić 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 dugout20 Nov 2028
The manager makes an example of Ben Flavell
“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 dugout20 Nov 2028
Diogo Teixeira knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dubočica, and both men came out saying it was fine.
The dugout20 Nov 2028
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 Bogdan Mladenović is on it.
Looking ahead20 Nov 2028
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against OFK Vršac in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Market20 Nov 2028
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Quentin Seedorf’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.