Marked for Safet Salimbasic
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market15 Jul 2030
Pedro García 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 Zlate Moravce can pretend not to have heard.
Squad15 Jul 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 Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom15 Jul 2030
Still no name above the door at Zlate Moravce
Day 14 of the vacancy. Candidates have been priced, sounded out and quietly ruled out — and the caretaker’s win ratio is becoming an argument all by itself.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Marek Sestak and Zlate Moravce agree another 1 years.
Squad15 Jul 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; Zlate Moravce are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad15 Jul 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Peter Ikechukwu, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad13 May 2030
Mamadou Kanouté 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.
Squad13 May 2030
“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 Zlate Moravce know it.
Squad13 May 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Mar 2030
Mamadou Kanouté 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.
Squad18 Mar 2030
“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 Zlate Moravce know it.
Squad18 Mar 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Timotej Záhumenský trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Pressure builds in the Zlate Moravce boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
Milan Hrosovsky has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zlate Moravce can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Squad7 Jan 2030
Vojtěch Kubista: 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.” Zlate Moravce have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Mamadou Kanouté commits to Zlate Moravce for another 2 years.
Squad7 Jan 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 Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jan 2030
“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 Zlate Moravce know it.
Market7 Jan 2030
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Jaroslav Toman has his answer from Zlate Moravce; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
Market7 Jan 2030
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Boardroom7 Jan 2030
The Zlate Moravce commercial book is shrinking
1 agreements expired this month and none of them was replaced. Sponsors follow a club down the table at almost exactly the speed the table moves.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
The end came on a Tuesday, as these things usually do: a short meeting, a shorter statement, and Tomas Nemec clearing his office by noon. Football’s cruellest ritual, performed to schedule.
Match3 Nov 2029
14 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Boardroom5 Nov 2029
“Somebody has to pick the team on Saturday, and this week that is me.” An interim appointment with no promises attached, which is how most of them start.
Squad5 Nov 2029
Mamadou Kanouté 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.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.39, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings5 Nov 2029
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad5 Nov 2029
“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; Zlate Moravce are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Nov 2029
A defender's mistake gets tidied up by somebody else; a goalkeeper's ends up in the net. He knew before the ball crossed the line, and so did everybody in the ground.
Match3 Nov 2029
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match8 Sep 2029
6 matches without a win for Zlate Moravce
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Zlate Moravce are no longer polite ones.
Squad10 Sep 2029
Levan Nonikashvili 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.
Match8 Sep 2029
Filip Balaj scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to MSK Zilina, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“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.
Squad10 Sep 2029
“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; Zlate Moravce are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Market10 Sep 2029
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Martin Bukata’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Aug 2029
There were 9 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Match22 Aug 2029
Out, 1‑2 to MFK Michalovce, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match25 Aug 2029
4 matches without a win for Zlate Moravce
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Zlate Moravce are no longer polite ones.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Mamadou Kanouté 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.
Match25 Aug 2029
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad27 Aug 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Oleg Nikolaev, and the manager let it.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings27 Aug 2029
Nobody could get near Adam Pudil
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad27 Aug 2029
Jake Evans makes his debut at 20
At 20 years old, Jake Evans became the latest name off the academy production line to be handed a senior shirt.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Tomas Nemec has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vojtěch Kubista commits to Zlate Moravce for another 2 years.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Mamadou Kanouté 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.
Squad2 Jul 2029
“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; Zlate Moravce are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Boardroom2 Jul 2029
$1.7M taken back off the Zlate Moravce table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad2 Jul 2029
Mamadou Kanouté has been around long enough to know what the spring feels like when it goes wrong, and he can feel it. A dressing room that is frightened plays like one.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Apr 2029
Timotej Záhumenský 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.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“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; Zlate Moravce are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad30 Apr 2029
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Apr 2029
Denis Duga 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.
Market9 Apr 2029
The Denis Duga story refuses to die
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Denis Duga signs something — a contract at Zlate Moravce or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Squad9 Apr 2029
Vinícius Kevin 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 Vinícius Kevin trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Tomas Nemec has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Denis Duga in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Mar 2029
“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; Zlate Moravce are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Squad5 Mar 2029
The captaincy has been taken off Filip Balaj. Zlate Moravce will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.
Squad5 Mar 2029
Filip Balaj 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.
Boardroom5 Mar 2029
$1.7M taken back off the Zlate Moravce table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
Tomas Nemec has until the next board meeting
What was said behind closed doors has now been said in front of a microphone. Everybody at Zlate Moravce can do the arithmetic, including the man it is aimed at.
Market8 Jan 2029
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad8 Jan 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Yegor Saigushev and Zlate Moravce agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Denis Duga in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Market8 Jan 2029
MFK Skalica are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Zlate Moravce will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$1.7M taken back off the Zlate Moravce table
What was available in the summer has quietly gone. Upstairs nobody will call it a change of ambition; downstairs nobody will call it anything else.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A year in and the language has not come, the city has not opened up, and he eats alone more often than anybody at Zlate Moravce would like to admit. It is showing on Saturdays.
Market8 Jan 2029
The best deals are the ones the accountants never notice. Safet Salimbasic arrives at Zlate Moravce with his wages the only cost and something to prove the only clause.