Alfie Whiteman 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.
Jarun Zagreb asked and Hajduk Split said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Wasim Hadidi was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vadim Yakimchik and Jarun Zagreb agree another 3 years.
Jarun Zagreb have made the call to Lokomotiva Zagreb. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Luka Hrvojević trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“I respect the manager and I am not going to sit here and pretend I am happy.” It is the most common sentence in football and it has never once been the end of a story.
Nobody upstairs has said anything, which is the loudest thing they could do. Results buy silence in this game; the account at Jarun Zagreb is running low.
Alfie Whiteman 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 Wasim Hadidi 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 Jarun Zagreb, and both men came out saying it was fine.
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Roger Guerra has written the date down.
The mood at Jarun Zagreb 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.
Successful dribbles: 25. 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.
Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 9 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Jarun Zagreb this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Wasim Hadidi 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.
“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 Jarun Zagreb know it.
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Benjamin Brandt after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Alfie Whiteman 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.
Squad14 Feb 2028
Wasim Hadidi 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.
Player ratings14 Feb 2028
Vito Matijević was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.28. 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.
“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; Jarun Zagreb are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
It needed Vito Matijević to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against Mladost Zdralovi, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Jadran Luka Ploce next, and one man in the Jarun Zagreb dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Jarun Zagreb have done the hard part with NK Osijek, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Jarun Zagreb can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Wasim Hadidi 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Sven Šunta 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.
5 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.
Jarun Zagreb had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Dinamo Zagreb, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
“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 Jarun Zagreb know it.
Alfie Whiteman 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.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Wasim Hadidi 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 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Alfie Whiteman and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad13 Dec 2027
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Wasim Hadidi 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.
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Saša Nardić and Jarun Zagreb agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout13 Dec 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Benjamin Brandt to a room that had heard them before.
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
Alfie Whiteman 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.
Squad11 Oct 2027
Wasim Hadidi 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.
“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 Jarun Zagreb know it.
Lucko next, and one man in the Jarun Zagreb dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Jarun Zagreb will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Jarun Zagreb training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marko Zebić 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.
Amir Hossein Reyvandi 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.
The mood at Jarun Zagreb 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.
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 104 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Alfie Whiteman 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.
Jarun Zagreb asked and Dubrava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Jarun Zagreb have made the call to HNK Gorica. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Abdoulaye Djiré signs something — a contract at Jarun Zagreb or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
A new face in his position, and Krešimir Luetić suddenly has to win back what he thought he owned. Jarun Zagreb have promised nothing — clubs rarely do at this stage.