“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Novi Pazar have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Novi Pazar this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad29 Oct 2029
Words at Novi Pazar training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Benjamin Gegić 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.
He is the name in every column and on every phone-in, which is a heavy thing to carry at any age. Some footballers thrive on it; others are quietly finished by it.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Sead Islamović is living that version at Novi Pazar, and it tends to show in the first month.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Novi Pazar can pretend not to have heard.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Damjan Daničić will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novi Pazar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
The shirt still fits. Sead Islamović is back at Novi Pazar, and half the ground remembers him in these colours already. Some signings need selling to the town; this one sold itself.
Stefan Vidaković 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 system has changed and his position has not. A footballer can improve his form; he cannot improve the manager’s formation, and that is the whole of the problem.
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 Novi Pazar 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.
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Tekstilac Odžaci waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Novi Pazar is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Two goals and a mark of 8.61 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hamad Šaćirović will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Novi Pazar the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Everything agreed with Crvena Zvezda, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Nikola Skrobonja 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.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 7 goals between Novi Pazar and OFK Vršac, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Crvena Zvezda have kept their man, and Novi Pazar go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Nikola Skrobonja 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 dugout14 May 2029
The manager has not finished forgetting Axel Holewiński'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.
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 Matias Lloci is on it.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Veljko Mirosavić signs something — a contract at Novi Pazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
“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 Novi Pazar will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
A manager forgives a bad Saturday far more readily than a bad Tuesday, because one of them he can explain and the other one he chose. The reports this week have not been good.
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Novi Pazar will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Veljko Mirosavić 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.
“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.
Squad12 Mar 2029
Wisdom Udom 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 Novi Pazar 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.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Driton Camaj signs something — a contract at Novi Pazar or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
Position 5, 44 points, and a run-in that decides whether next season has Thursday nights in it. Nobody is calling it a race yet, which is what people say during one.
“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 Novi Pazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Novi Pazar people have started saying his name in the past tense.
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.81 for the rest of it.
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Novi Pazar may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Boardroom5 Feb 2029
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 1 gone
That is the business done at Novi Pazar 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.
$310.0K on the table at Radnicki Nis. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Involvement in 2 goals, from a player who spent the ninety minutes doing the thing a manager actually wants: being where the ball was going to end up. 6.54 beside his name.
Veljko Mirosavić 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.
Nobody at Novi Pazar 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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Dominic Sadi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Novi Pazar, another week without a signature from Hamad Šaćirović.
Nikola Skrobonja 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.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Driton Camaj. 2‑1 against Cukaricki, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
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.
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 10 combined actions and a mark of 6.76, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Novi Pazar told Mihai Butean something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
9 combined actions and 6.68. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
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 Matias Lloci is on it.
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Zeleznicar Pancevo in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
Two goals and a mark of 8.66 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
“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 Novi Pazar, and it is not being withdrawn.
Add another name to the list: Trayal Kruševac have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Skima Togbe. The answer from Novi Pazar has not changed — yet.
Novi Pazar asked and OFK Beograd said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Stefan Vidaković 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.
Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.
Nikola Skrobonja and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Jun 2028
Jake Rooney 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.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Nikola Skrobonja is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Zeleznicar Pancevo have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Nobody at Novi Pazar 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.
At 21 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.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Bendel Insurance this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Bamidele Adeniyi trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.