Marked for Olalekan Adeleke
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match25 Aug 2027
Crvena Zvezda go through and Zeleznicar Pancevo go home, 0‑5 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market30 Aug 2027
“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 The request is on a desk at Zeleznicar Pancevo, and it is not being withdrawn.
The dugout30 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zeleznicar Pancevo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
The terraces30 Aug 2027
It finished 0-5. A cup exit is a disappointment; this was a public dismantling, and the difference between the two is the number of people who will still be talking about it in August.
Market30 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zeleznicar Pancevo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Squad30 Aug 2027
At 22 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.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Slobodan Medojević and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad30 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kwaku Karikari was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
The dugout2 Aug 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Zeleznicar Pancevo may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Olalekan Adeleke has just signed for Zeleznicar Pancevo, and for once the answer mattered.
Market2 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Zoran Popović 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.
Transfer targets2 Aug 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Partizan have kept their man, and Zeleznicar Pancevo go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Slobodan Medojević was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Market2 Aug 2027
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Zeleznicar Pancevo have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
The dugout2 Aug 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.
Squad2 Aug 2027
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Azeez Agboola, 20, steals the show — 8.72
Marked 8.72 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer from AS Police for Olalekan Adeleke was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Samuel Anakwe commits to Remo Stars for another 4 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Remo Stars this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Antonio Galeano 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 dugout3 Aug 2026
No hiding place for Zé Ivaldo
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Zé Ivaldo, and the manager let it.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Azeez Agboola 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
It finished 2‑0, and it was Antonio Galeano’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Remo Stars.