Slaven Belupo will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Istra 1961 were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
He is 23 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
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.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Istra 1961, and 8 appearances in 12 say he has earned the hearing.
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Yannick Touré.
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dominik Paškvan did not need any: 7.61, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Pjero Škarić 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.
Kustosija left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Ivan Roca 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.
“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 dugout23 Nov 2026
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 2‑3 defeat, delivered by Darijo Juranovic to a room that had heard them before.
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.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Lucko in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
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.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Uljanik Pula told Teo Žiković something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Tomas Baković, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.67
A mark of 7.67 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Mihael Rebernik 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.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ivan Roca 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.
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Tomas Baković. 1‑0 against Segesta, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Darijo Juranovic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
Successful dribbles: 12. 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.
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Uljanik Pula have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 19 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
18 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.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Darijo Juranovic after 1‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
“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 Uljanik Pula, and it is not being withdrawn.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Radnik Surdulica have kept their man, and Uljanik Pula go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Uljanik Pula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luka Pršlja 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.
Ivan Bradarić 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Dominik Paškvan 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.
18 new faces, and Uljanik Pula are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Darijo Juranovic on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
In brief
Looking aheadA test against the best for Uljanik Pula
“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 Istra 1961, and it is not being withdrawn.
Everything was agreed until it was not, and Filip Taraba reports back to Istra 1961 with a summer to forget. Neither club is saying who walked away from the table.
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 5 arrived, 6 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Istra 1961 will try again when the window opens; Rudes may not be selling by then.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Samuli Miettinen was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Franko Kovačević has come out of that comparison in the side, and Istra 1961 have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
That is the business done at Uljanik Pula until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Uljanik Pula have done the hard part with Istra 1961, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Uljanik Pula this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Uljanik Pula are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Uljanik Pula training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dominik Glasnović 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.
11 months left and silence from upstairs — no offer, no talks, nothing for his people to answer. Clubs that let a calendar do their negotiating usually end up negotiating with the calendar.
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 Stipe Ukich is on it.