Marked for Ander Marticorena
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Apr 2028
“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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Radnik Surdulica have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad3 Apr 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Apr 2028
Words at Radnik Surdulica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Mladenović 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.
Squad3 Apr 2028
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market3 Apr 2028
The loan was meant to give him football. 0 games and 0 goals later he is back at Radnik Surdulica no further forward, and everybody involved will explain why it was not their doing.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match22 Jan 2028
3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Market24 Jan 2028
“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 The request is on a desk at Radnik Surdulica, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.14 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad24 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings24 Jan 2028
Mahmudu Bajo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.06. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The terraces24 Jan 2028
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Mahmudu Bajo 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.
Squad24 Jan 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Dragan Čubra, and the manager let it.
Squad24 Jan 2028
Words at Radnik Surdulica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pedro Empis 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Dec 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 Radnik Surdulica this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Words at Radnik Surdulica training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Mladenović 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.
Match4 Dec 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Igor Ivanović’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Radnik Surdulica.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad6 Dec 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Marko Mladenović
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Marko Mladenović has come out of that comparison in the side, and Radnik Surdulica have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Squad6 Dec 2027
“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.