It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vlašim 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 Eden Gassama was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Bohemians 1905 arrive as leaders. A side at the top is beaten roughly once a month, and the club that does it gets a week it remembers for a year.
The dugout18 Nov 2030
The manager has not finished forgetting Sem Eekhout's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
29 graduates, from a department now rated 7 out of 20. Nothing about the academy appears in a result, and nothing about the club’s future exists without it.
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Vlašim can tell you which week it ends in.
Gideon Iliya 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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Vlašim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ondřej Mihálik 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Interim Coach after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Successful dribbles: 14. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Gideon Iliya 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ondřej Mihálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Vlašim, another week without a signature from Chineme Chinonso.
“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 Vlašim will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
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.
Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room and never have. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and at Vlašim that is a harder question to answer.
2 months left, and both sides know what that means: every week without a signature, the fee Vlašim could ask drops and the wages Noah Ward can ask rise.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vlašim have done the hard part with Bohemians 1905, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Gideon Iliya and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad15 Jul 2030
Eden Gassama 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.
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 Vlašim would admit. It shows on Saturdays.
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 Filip Vácha is on it.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Slavia Kroměříž waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Vlašim is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vlašim can pretend not to have heard.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Vlašim have done the hard part with Viktoria Plzen, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Slavia Prague keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vlašim 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 Ondřej Mihálik was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Gideon Iliya 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.
In brief
SquadWords at Vlašim training over how hard people work
“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 Vlašim, and it is not being withdrawn.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Chineme Chinonso was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Vlašim, and both men came out saying it was fine.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Vlašim this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
22 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Squad13 May 2030
Words at Vlašim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jacob Mendy 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 Chineme Chinonso trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I did not come here to warm up in front of people.” He is out of contract eventually, he is old enough to count the weeks, and Vlašim will have to give him a reason to stay or an exit.
In brief
MarketThe clock does Noah Ward’s negotiating for him
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Vlašim is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Gideon Iliya 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.
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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at Vlašim has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
In brief
The dugoutJack Hodgkiss knocks on the manager's door
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Vlašim can pretend not to have heard.
Gideon Iliya 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.
Squad1 Apr 2030
Words at Vlašim training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Šimon Tesař 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.
Everybody saw it before anybody said it. At 36 the numbers say 3 points down on what he was, and the question for Vlašim is how to handle a man they owe a great deal.
“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 Vlašim know it.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager makes an example of Patrik Hidi
108 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Beltinci lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
A bad atmosphere can be waited out. A group of people meeting afterwards to decide what to do about it cannot, and everybody in the building knows which stage this is.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Beltinci is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Vito Štrakl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 May 2029
Vid Šumenjak 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.
Nobody at Beltinci will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.